The U.S. Coast Guard’s Deepwater Force Modernization Plan: Can It Be Accelerated? Will It Meet Changing Security Needs?

Explores whether the pace at which the U.S. Coast Guard can acquire surface and air assets that it will operate in the deepwater environment (50 or more nautical miles from shore) can be accelerated and whether the original Integrated Deepwater System program to modernize its aging ships and aircraft will provide the Coast Guard with a force structure to meet the demands of its traditional missions and emerging responsibilities as part of the new Department of Homeland Security.