There are no guarantees with this sort of proposal, but the cost is low, and the potential payoffs are huge.
Note the information on the author that was included in the US Naval Institute Proceedings Article I have included below.
Cadet Evan Twarog, U.S. Coast Guard
Cadet Twarog is studying electrical engineering at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. He is interested in unmanned aircraft systems, remote sensing, and crisis mapping. During Hurricane Harvey, he helped lead the Coast Guard’s first crisis mapping response, which ultimately collected over 1000 search-and- rescue cases posted to social media. Outside of school, he is a competitive cyclist and EMT. He won third prize in the 2018 Naval Institute Coast Guard Essay Contest for his essay, “Hurricane Ready: The Coast Guard Adapts to the Social Media Storm.”
1 thought on ““The Coast Guard Needs an Innovation Outpost in Silicon Valley” –USNI”
Interesting proposal, but let’s consider some of the premise of his vision.
“networking with established tech-firms such as Facebook and Google”
There are other companies in the valley, Informatica and Oracle are examples, that are better suited for business-to-business data exchange and large scale data management than the book of face, unless the Cadet would prefer to live stream the Mellon on a south patrol.
“Failure with a class of cutters would break trust with the American people.”
Does the Cadet know of the history of the 110 to 123 failure? how about breaking the trust of the enlisted men and women that keep the cutters operating.
“Up to this point, the Coast Guard has not worked with SVIP, presenting an exciting partnership opportunity. Securing OT authority will require an act of Congress, and while the Coast Guard is pursuing this, SVIP presents an opportunity to gain experience with how to leverage the acquisitions method.”
So he is suggesting that the Leadership bypass the established budget with all the current priorities that are far more critical such as the OPC and Icebreaker programs, as you have extensively detailed, Chuck, among many others, that have more of a priority. Umm, yeah, let’s throw money away on future technology and ignore the present.
No disrespect intended, to my view he’s trying to make a name for himself and he’s not in the Fleet yet, and that is not the most productive way for a person to start a career by saying, in effect, “i have all the answers”.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Interesting proposal, but let’s consider some of the premise of his vision.
“networking with established tech-firms such as Facebook and Google”
There are other companies in the valley, Informatica and Oracle are examples, that are better suited for business-to-business data exchange and large scale data management than the book of face, unless the Cadet would prefer to live stream the Mellon on a south patrol.
“Failure with a class of cutters would break trust with the American people.”
Does the Cadet know of the history of the 110 to 123 failure? how about breaking the trust of the enlisted men and women that keep the cutters operating.
“Up to this point, the Coast Guard has not worked with SVIP, presenting an exciting partnership opportunity. Securing OT authority will require an act of Congress, and while the Coast Guard is pursuing this, SVIP presents an opportunity to gain experience with how to leverage the acquisitions method.”
So he is suggesting that the Leadership bypass the established budget with all the current priorities that are far more critical such as the OPC and Icebreaker programs, as you have extensively detailed, Chuck, among many others, that have more of a priority. Umm, yeah, let’s throw money away on future technology and ignore the present.
No disrespect intended, to my view he’s trying to make a name for himself and he’s not in the Fleet yet, and that is not the most productive way for a person to start a career by saying, in effect, “i have all the answers”.