FY17 Coast Guard Request Strikes Balance Between Rebuilding the Fleet and Managing Risk (Ronald A. LaBrec, CFR)

The hot-off-the-presses fiscal year 2017 presidential budget request includes a $10.3 billion top line request for the Coast Guard and several areas of progress for Coast Guard modernization. Despite record funding for acquisition, construction and improvement (AC&I) of capital assets in 2016, the FY17 request continues a general trend of lower AC&I funding that began in 2013. The investment in several key shipbuilding programs, however, is important as the service focuses on meeting its missions with an ancient fleet. The majority of the service’s offshore ships are between thirty and fifty years old. While most have gone through major service-life extension projects they are reaching the end of their useful lifespan and are becoming increasingly unreliable and costly to maintain.

http://blogs.cfr.org/davidson/2016/02/10/fy17-coast-guard-request-strikes-balance-between-rebuilding-the-fleet-and-managing-risk/