For those that have not heard about DeepWater PDFCRS Report for Congress gives a great overview of the program and costs/reasoning's.
But this all started with a whistle blower breaking new ground on youtube.
He has an update from September 16, 2006 Where he says that the Secure Military Internet is vulnerable from up to the "end of the dock." This compromises the backbone of our security system and any foreign govt can park a boat in the area and hack into our military internet.
He got some good press
from ABC on Aug. 29.
"YouTube was my last best shot — I never wanted to do this publicly," he explained.
Here are his main concerns.
He says he observed three serious failures that were not corrected before the first boat re-entered Coast Guard service in March 2004:
1) Project leaders left a blind spot in the boat's security system when they omitted one of five video cameras to save money. When DeKort raised this issue with team leaders, they said the solution was "to lock the window" in the blind spot and periodically "check for broken glass" such as an intruder might leave behind. "One more camera would have solved this at an expense of under $1,000," DeKort claims.
2) In installing a new Forward-Looking Infra-Red camera, the team used a cheap cable that wasn't weatherproof, meaning it might fail in rain or high seas, depriving the boat's crew of its "eyes in the dark". "I asked that we swap it out for one meant to survive the elements. Management refused to swap out the cable and said we would replace it when it fails. This cable is going to fail when the crew needs it most."
3) Perhaps most seriously, according to DeKort, the team used unshielded cables in the terminals that connect the boats to the military's secure internet. "Any foreign government monitoring these boats, from shore or from 'fishing boats', will be able to pick up all the communications from these boats. Since we have no shielded cables, these boats will emanate like an antenna. As the Coast Guard now has a requirement to be able to communicate with Department of Defense and several other agencies, this puts all of those agencies at severe risk."
"I have spent the past three years dealing with these issues," DeKort says, adding that whenever one manager blew him off, he'd go to the next higher. As a result of his complaints, "There have been three levels of ethics investigations and an investigation by cooperate legal," he reports. "While corporate legal maintains all of my issues are baseless, the Inspector General [of] the Department of Homeland Security has informed me recently that all of my allegations are indeed accurate, [that] the U.S. Coast Guard is undertaking a complete review."
These are some serious flaws that show how corrupt the Military Industrial Complex(MIC) has become. It looks like oversite is coming and Lockheed Martin will be exposed as the war profiteers they are. Playboyexposed them I diaried it here. But this BlackWater Fiasco is about to meet its maker.
Maria Cantwell is now the subcommittee chair with oversite over The Coast Guard. http://cantwell.senate.gov/...
During the 110th Congress, Cantwell will continue in her oversight role, helping to ensure that the Coast Guard continues protecting our ports, the safety of mariners, and our marine environment. The Coast Guard is in the process of modernizing its fleet through an acquisition program called Deepwater that has encountered problems including faulty design work, cost and schedule overruns, and a lack of contract transparency. Adequate oversight of this program will be one of Cantwell’s top priorities as subcommittee chair.
This is her most recent Press Release.
In reviewing the IG’s report released today on the NRC, Cantwell expressed concerns about the following areas:
- Potential compromised performance for the Coast Guard and all of its missions—including homeland security and law enforcement; - Increased costs of Deepwater assets due to design deficiencies and mismanagement - Lack of accountability and responsibility on the part of the ICGS; - Fundamental questions raised by the IG report with regard to the entire Deepwater program and Coast Guard management and contractor performance, under the Lead System Integrator (LSI) contract approach; - Extremely troubling assertions that the Coast Guard and ICGS did not follow appropriate procedures with respect to the IG’s investigation, the acrimonious relationship between the IG and the two entities, and the number of significant discrepancies between the assertions of each; and - The seeming "culture of denial" within the Coast Guard Deepwater program and Coast Guard leadership with regards to their own internal experts, Congress, and the public.
The Commerce Committee Chair Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) appointed U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) to chair the Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard on January 24, 2007.
These are good articles read them.
http://www.clarionledger.com/...
Second District Rep. Bennie Thompson said he once backed a plan to speed production of the Deepwater ships, but the inspector general's report changed his mind.
"We should put on hold anything with Deepwater until we get some answers," said Thompson, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees the Coast Guard's operations.
A report by the Inspector General for the Homeland Security Department says the Coast Guard failed in its oversight of the defense contractors who won the Deepwater contract in 2002. Those contractors, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, are participating in a joint venture called Integrated Coast Guard Systems that is building the cutters in Pascagoula.
"The (cutter's) design and performance deficiencies are fundamentally the result of the Coast Guard's failure to exercise technical oversight over the design and construction of Deepwater assets," the inspector general's report said.
And
Federal probe blasts Coast Guard program
January 29, 2007, 3:10PM EST
A federal investigation concluded that the U.S. Coast Guard's multibillion-dollar fleet modernization program run by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. has design flaws that have led to spiraling maintenance costs and, without a fix, could reduce the longevity of the spiffed-up ships.
the combined cost of the first two cutters has increased from $517 million to about $775 million primarily due to design changes needed to meet post-9/11 mission requirements and other government specifications not included in the original contract,
...
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Monday that lawmakers plan to work with the Coast Guard to improve the Deepwater program so the ships "do not buckle."
"The fact that we have a number of ships that have been deemed not seaworthy causes us great concern," Thompson said during a speech at George Washington University.
The Deepwater contract gives the contractors the authority to make all design and configuration decisions, which allowed ICGS to "deviate significantly" from standards developed to support the Coast Guard's mission requirements, and to "self-certify compliance" with those standards, according to the 139-page IG report.
Get that, Due to the BS contract that gave them(Lockheed Martin) the "authority to make all design and configuration decisions" it looks to me that if they used the "correct wires" the first time. 2/3's of the problems would of been fixed. But the recycling of old boats to save a buck may be the main problem; boats splitting in two is a huge problem. And at a cost of $755+ million per boat there should be no need to have to create a new welding flaws in the haul.
Well looks like money was more important than doing the right thing. They are milking the system dry. War Profiteering at its worse.
Lockheed Martin http://www.corpwatch.org/...
The world's #1 military contractor, responsible for the U-2 and SR-71 spy planes, F-16, F/A-22 fighter jet, and Javelin missiles. They've also made millions through insider trading, falsifying accounts, and bribing officials.
CEO: Robert J. Stevens
Military contracts 2005: $19.4 billion
Total contributions for the 2004 election cycle: $2,212,836*