Polar Star at Mare Island Dry Dock LLC undergoing the fourth phase of its five-year Service Life Extension Project. U.S. Coast Guard photo by Cmdr. Jeremy Courtade.
“A multi-billion shortfall in operation and maintenance coffers is hampering US Coast Guard operations with a steep cliff looming on the horizon, according to Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan…The four-star admiral estimated that her service funding really needs to grow from $13 billion up towards the $20 billion range, and that right now it could “ingest” $3 billion for operation and maintenance accounts to keep helicopters in the air and vessels mission ready. That additional $3 billion, Fagan added, could be used to shore up infrastructure, buy additional parts, maintenance, and for command, control, communication, computer, cyber and intelligence (C5I) initiatives.”
The Commandant says dry dockings are being deferred and parts and equipment has to be passed from cutter to cutter to allow them to deploy with full capability.
Swapping equipment puts an additional load on the crews. Being Semper Paratus cost money.
Good to see the Commandant being forthright about the problems, rather than trying to pretend the Coast Guard does not need additional funding to meet the ever-increasing demands.
Being a credible, essential part of the defense establishment by having clearly defined roles in a potential future conflict with China and/or Russia would help to justify additional cost and heightened readiness.
Thanks to Lee for bringing this to my attention.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
It has been too many decades where we get caught short on fiscal needs and it becomes a service wide problem. In fact, it’s past getting old and is now expected in some form or another. I used to vanpool to HQ with a budget analyst in the F shop who told me CG has never learned how to properly play the DC congressional game of requesting and receiving adequate funding, mostly through failing at proper analytics that are the basis of shortfall evidence that are never properly articulated to the lawmakers and the problem festers. I recently saw a hearing on CSPAN with the DCO concerning status of icebreaker procurement. The legislators were clearly annoyed, especially those who had been there a long time, that CG doesn’t – wait for it – ask for the appropriate funding and then come around later asking for more. They even almost begged DCO to simply tell them what is needed before it becomes a problem so they can try and get the money. These remarks by CCG indicate that the problem still exists and does not reflect well on service leadership and as such our operational readiness degrades and what is expected from our service fails.