Coast Guard aircraft, ships in poor condition

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Coast Guard’s ships, planes and helicopters are breaking down at record rates, threatening the maritime service’s ability to carry out its post-9/11 mission of protecting ports and waterways against terrorists.

Key members of Congress, maritime security experts and a former top Homeland Security Department official say plans to replace the Coast Guard’s 88 aging cutters and 186 aircraft over the next 20 years should be accelerated.

“This nation must understand the dire situation in which the Coast Guard now finds itself,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, chairwoman of a Senate Coast Guard subcommittee. She favors replacing the Coast Guard’s “deepwater” fleet — the ships and aircraft capable of operating far offshore — over 10 to 15 years.

Former Coast Guard commandant and Homeland Security deputy secretary James Loy said “the stakes are simply too high in the post-9/11 environment” to continue to allow the Coast Guard’s aging equipment to continue to deteriorate.

The Bush administration wants to increase the amount of time it will take to replace a fleet that’s among the oldest on the globe - older even than fleets owned by Algeria and Pakistan. The “deepwater” replacement program, conceived in 1998 as a $20 billion, 20-year plan to replace the fleet, would be increased to 25 years under a White House plan.