U.S. Coast Guard prepares to plunge into Deepwater.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold

The U.S. Coast Guard is laying plans to get off the mark quickly with its Integrated Deepwater System Program, an ambitious, long-term effort to modernize the service's decades-old fleets of ocean-going ships, helicopters and aircraft.

The Coast Guard was poised in June to award the first in a series of five-year contracts worth as much as $15 billion over the next 20 to 30 years.

The contract calls for the winner, during that period of time, to replace or rebuild the service's forces that operate as far as 50 miles or more offshore, patrolling for terrorists, drug traffickers, illegal immigrants, commercial fishing violations or mariners in distress. Included are approximately 90 cutters and patrol boats, 70 fixed-wing aircraft, 130 helicopters, their communications equipment, sensors and logistical infrastructure.

The service planned to begin immediately, retiring obsolete platforms, renovating others and building entirely new generations of ships and aircraft, officials said. "At the heart and soul of the Deepwater program is change," Rear Adm. Patrick M. Stillman, the Coast Guard's program executive officer, told a recent NDIA-sponsored conference in Baltimore. "This is not old wine in new bottles."

Although the Coast Guard in early June had not announced the winner of the competition, the clear frontrunner was Integrated Coast Guard Systems. ICGS is a joint venture including Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems-Surface Systems, of Moorestown, N.J.; Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Ingalls Operation, of Pascagoula, Miss., and approximately 100 other U.S. and international corporations.

In March, two other teams--led by the Boeing Company, of Chicago, and the Science Applications International Corporation, of San Diego, were notified that they were out of the running, and ICGS was asked to provide additional details of its proposals.

At press time, the ICGS team was proceeding cautiously. "It looks good, but we're nor taking anything for granted," said Jay Dragone, vice president of Coast Guard and international programs at Lockheed Martin.

Speaking before award of the contract, Dragone was reluctant to be specific about the team's plans. He did say, however, that if ICGS does win, "we're going to come out of the starting blocks very aggressively."

The Coast Guard has $320 million still available for Deepwater projects in fiscal year 2002, which ends on September 30, Dragone noted. After that, the contract calls for...