GAO: Lack of workforce and fleet data may imperil Coast Guard efforts to modernize aircraft fleet

According to new findings from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the U.S. Coast Guard’s ongoing efforts to modernize its fleet of about 200 aircraft suffer from a major flaw in its lack of analytical data. 

The Coast Guard relies on its aircraft to protect the U.S. coastline and inland waterways, particularly for search and rescue missions. However, between fiscal years 2018 and 2022, its aircraft fleet availability failed to meet its 71 percent availability target, exposing the possibility that at least one aircraft might not always be available on short notice. At the time, the Coast Guard cited maintenance and repair challenges. 

Following this, the Coast Guard launched four programs to modernize its aircraft and keep them running for decades – particularly necessary, given that several of the service’s aircraft are approaching the end of their original service lives. Those programs could reach an estimated $105.6 billion in costs.

Under fiscal year 2023’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), GAO was tapped to review issues related to Coast Guard aircraft availability. This led to reviews of the extent to which Coast Guard aircraft met operational availability targets, efforts to modernize its aircraft fleet, and the extent to which it determined its aviation-related workforce needs.

It found issues that could lead to less than what the Coast Guard needs or desires. For example, one of the programs being pursued would consolidate the Coast Guard’s helicopter fleet from short-range and medium-range craft to an all-medium-range helicopter fleet. In the process, it would lose at least 19 helicopters – but according to GAO, the Coast Guard never assessed if such loss would still maintain the quantity of helicopters it needs for mission demands.

No alternatives were analyzed, nor was a fleet mix analysis done to help the Coast Guard identify the necessary number of helicopters it needed. Further, as of July 2023, 9 percent of the service’s authorized military aviation workforce positions were empty, but the Coast Guard has yet to assess and determine its full aviation workforce needs. 

GAO said this leaves the Coast Guard unable to fully understand the resources it needs for its aviation units. 

In summation, GAO recommended five paths for the Coast Guard to pursue:

1. Establish procedures requiring the uniform collection and maintenance of air station readiness data.
2. Establish means to regularly evaluate that data.
3. Assess the type of helicopters the Coast Guard requires to meet its mission demands as part of an analysis of alternatives.
4. Assess the number of helicopters needed to meet mission demands as part of a fleet mix analysis.
5. Assess and determine the aviation workforce levels required to meet mission needs.

While no actions have been taken on any of these, GAO added that the Department of Homeland Security concurred with its recommendations.