A major Coast Guard modernization program has been so badly mismanaged that the service now has boats that don’t float, marine radios that aren’t waterproof and replacement vessels and aircraft that are years behind schedule and millions of dollars over budget. This happened, according to news reports, because the Coast Guard allowed private contractors to manage the massive project with little oversight and because Congress failed to be more aggressive when problems became known. Going forward, congressional overseers must ensure that basic criteria, such as hulls that won’t crack and buckle in heavy seas, are met before authorizing any more money for the project.

The modernization program, known as Deepwater, called for 91 new ships and 124 small boats, 195 new or rebuilt helicopters and 49 unmanned aerial vehicles at a cost of $17 billion. The new and refurbished equipment was needed to reinvigorate the Coast Guard’s aged fleet to help it meet its expanded mission, especially after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Because the overhaul involved all its equipment, the Coast Guard decided to allow an entity formed by two major defense contractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrup Grumman, to handle the entire project. This new entity, Integrated Coast Guard Systems, quickly ran into problems while ignoring or overriding the concerns of Coast Guard engineers, according to extensive reporting by the New York Times.

An early project was to add decking to the agency’s workhorse 110-foot cutters so the vessels could hold more equipment. The work was performed on eight of the cutters, all of which are now in drydock because the hulls cracked after the modifications were made. Steel reinforcement strips and limiting the boats’ use in rough seas didn’t solve the problem and the work, which has already cost $100 million, has since been suspended.

A remake of larger vessels using untried composite technology also ran into problems and has been halted. A new boat, called the National Security Cutter, was supposed to be the flagship of the Coast Guard fleet. Coast Guard and Navy engineers warned that the vessel’s design made it susceptible to hull cracking. The first two versions of the ship will now be reinforced and the contractor says it plans to change the design before more are built.

At the request of Sen. Snowe, the Government Accountability Office investigated and found problems with the Coast Guard’s oversight of the Deepwater program, problems the agency said it was addressing. Sen. Snowe has also chaired numerous hearings on the project and was not told of the extent of the problems, especially with the largest vessels. She has asked the GAO to investigate the reported problems with the National Security Cutter.

Such a review is welcome, if late. Because the Coast Guard has proven incapable of overseeing this work, government reviews of Deepwater will become routine, further delaying the project and pushing its costs even higher.