Coast Guard Deepwater Program Contract Won’t Help Save Lives But Will Waste Money

Today, Senator John Kerry called on the United States Coast Guard to drop the current Deepwater contract held by Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman and hold an open and competitive bidding process for the remaining aspects of the program.

The Deepwater Project will update the Coast Guard’s existing fleet of ships and aircraft designed to keep our country safe and is an essential component of our national security. Due to wasteful contracts and mismanagement of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, the completion is currently nine years behind schedule and $7 billion dollars over budget.

Senator Kerry made the following statement today to the Commerce Committee hearing on the Coast Guard contract:

“The Coast Guard’s Deepwater Program has been plagued by poor engineering, lax oversight, and cost overruns that will cost taxpayers billions of dollars. The flawed management structure of the program allowed the private contractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, to make management decisions that increased their bottom lines at the expense of taxpayers and national security.

“Whether it’s buying seaport radiation monitors that can’t tell the difference between a bomb and a banana, or issuing inflated no-bid Katrina clean-up contracts, the Department of Homeland Security has failed Americans. Private contractors should not be allowed to feed at the taxpayer trough while the Department of Homeland Security fails to adequately defend our country.

“When the current Deepwater contract expires in June, the Coast Guard should drop Lockheed and Northrop and hold an open and competitive bidding process for the remaining aspects of the program and ensure that management decisions are made by solely by the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard should also explore every legal option to re-coup funding from Lockheed/Northrop that it spent on poorly designed ships.

“We must put an end to lax oversight and the business as usual approach of this Administration and make the common sense choices that will protect hardworking Americans.”

Lockheed and Northrop, who were supposed to open up subcontracts to competition, instead relied on their own subsidiaries for much of the work and made questionable purchases, including buying the wrong sized computer consoles on the new National Security Cutters. They also changed the design of the ships in question, which will not allow them to operate as long as the Coast Guard needs and will require retrofitting totaling at least $500 million.