The GAO has published a new report, GAO-12-741, “Legacy Vessels’ Declining Conditions Reinforce Need for More Realistic Operational Targets”. I’ve added a link to the report on the reference page.
Hopefully I’ll be able to review it soon and provide the highlights. After a cursory glance one surprising result is that the 210s seem to be holding up better than the 270s, in spite of there age. This may be a reflection of their simplicity–fewer things to go wrong.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
There is a short review of the report here: http://www.marinelog.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2732:gao-report-highlightsplight-of-uscg-legacy-fleet&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=195
(Thanks to Lee for the heads up.)
Chuck,
to follow on with this finding, the Defense News had a good article last week on the USCG’s cutter fleet and how we currently only have 40% of the cutters we need to complete our mission.A second point it made was the proportionally in size the USCG is 12.5% of the USN’s active duty force, if we where budgeted proportionally to the USN, or 12.5% of their budget, we should receive $1.7 billion a year, versus the 879 millions we received in FY2013.
That point was made in the study
“Coast Guard Cutter Procurement: Background and Issues for Congress” (pdf) Congressional Research Service, Ronald O’Rourke, July 20, 2012
I think the second point is right on, but it refers only to ship construction, in fact the Navy spends more on aircraft than on ships, so its “AC&I” budget (they don’t call it that) is proportionately even larger.
The USCG took steps to get the program back on track because it was OFF THE TRACK. Why? Because the LSI in charge ICGS had screwed up. This is exactly what the unconditional performance wide guaranty was supposed to address. But instead of using it the USCG chose to cancel the ICGS contract (for which there were no employees) and give all of the remaining work to the companies and subcontractor that made up ICGS in the first place. So after the FRC composite hull issue, the 123 debacle, the NSC hull design flaw, $10B spent, a wasted decade and a rapidly accelerating fleet decay the USCG is now trying to soak the tax payer to bail ICGS out because they don’t have the courage to hold them accountable.
Thank you for letting me reply