America's Third World Navy

The Coast Guard's ships and aircraft are aging quickly toward obsolescence. The age of the majority of their cutters run between 37 and 50 years old. The Algerian and Pakistani Navy are more modern than our Coast Guard.

Unscheduled maintenance has grown in the service by a factor of three since 1999.

Maybe instead of selling the Navy's decommisioned ships to foreign powers we should refurbish more of those boats and put them into Coast Guard service.

Would they be brand new? No. Would it be cheaper than buying new? Yes. Would it give us a short term solution pending the slow modernization of the Guard? Yes.

Isn't the Coast Guard's job too important in a post-911 world to allow it to fall into disrepair?

C'mon, you know the answer to that one.

The government is working on a deepwater replacement force, but what about the rest of the fleet. Its going to take 25 years, but they are working on it.

In 2004, the Coast Guard helicopter fleet experienced a failure/unanticipated maintenance record in the 330 issues per every 100,000 flying hours. There were 23 hull breeches requiring dry dock repair. All 12 of the Guard's big Pacific Ocean cruisers suffered engine trouble while on patrol.

My source for this data was an excellent article from USA Today.

The Coast Guard's area of responsibility includes patrolling the 361 ports and 95,000 miles of coastline that make up our great country. They are tasked with boarding and inspecting many thousands of cargo and recreational vessels every year as well as having a hand in security at all American commercial ports.

Doesn't it seem like everything in our power should be done to make sure that these guys have the tools they need to do a good job?

Read this for a look at life aboard one of the aging Coast Guard vessels.