Equipped with aging boats and helicopters, the Coast Guard in 1997 developed a replacement program and aimed to upgrade its fleet within 20 years. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Coast Guard’s work has grown substantially and it was asked to revise its equipment replacement program.

The Coast Guard now says it needs fewer ships and will acquire them within 25 years. This thinking left many inside Washington, and out, scratching their heads. Although “doing more with less” has become a mantra of government budget cutters, in this case, it doesn’t make sense. If the Coast Guard couldn’t rescue fishermen, check on fishing and pollution rule violations, interdict drug traffickers and stop ocean-going illegal aliens with the boats it had in 1997, it can’t do all that plus guard the U.S. border and detect chemical and biological weapons in 2005 without a large increase in its budget.

Despite the increased demands on the Coast Guard, the Office of Management and Budget has refused to increase the department’s budget. As a result, the Coast Guard reported last week that its Deepwater Program, which is meant to replace aging equipment with advanced systems with new capabilities, would be complete in 20 to 25 years. The revised plan also called for fewer new ships to be built.

Senators, including Maine’s, naturally find this new timetable unacceptable. “If we take this tack, the service will continue to be stretched far too thin,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, who heads the Commerce Committee’s subcommittee that oversees the Coast Guard. “We cannot afford a weakened Coast Guard in a post-Sept. 11 world.”

Since the attacks, the Coast Guard has seen a 25 percent increase in its responsibilities. To combat terrorist threats, the Coast Guard is undertaking more port security operations while its boats are also required to be able to go farther out to sea to interdict potential threats. It is also involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom, where it deployed 11 cutters and 1,200 personnel in the service’s first combat zone deployment since the Vietnam War.

These activities take a heavy toll on its boats and aircraft. In the past year, there have been 23 hull breaches among its patrol fleet requiring emergency dry dock. The number of unexpected maintenance days for some of the fleet has grown by 400 percent since 1999. That means the service is spending millions of dollars on repairs and maintenance, money that could be better spent on building new boats as part of the Deepwater Program.

Both Sens. Snowe and Susan Collins, chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, are calling for a 10-year implementation plan.

A key question will be how to fund the accelerated building program. One place to look is the Navy’s shipbuilding program. That service plans to build up to 82 Littoral Combat Ships. These small ships have limited firepower and endurance and largely duplicate vessels the Coast Guard already has. Instead, the Navy should focus on the more capable DD(X) destroyers, a program that may be cut in half, threatening the future of Bath Iron Works.

Without more funding the Deepwater Program will remain a far-off goal that won’t help the Coast Guard meet its current responsibilities. There should be no confusion about that.