The Coast Guard is struggling to get ship repair yards to bid on its work as the Navy is leaning on more of these same companies to help dig out of its own ship maintenance backlog – and with the Navy contracts being larger and more lucrative, the Coast Guard is realizing it must “change the way we do business,” its engineering official said.
Rear Adm. Nathan Moore, assistant commandant for engineering and logistics, said earlier this month that the Coast Guard has just one organic shipyard in Baltimore, Md. – which only meets part of the needs of the East Coast fleet and none of the needs elsewhere in the country. With the Coast Guard almost totally dependent on industry for its ship repair work, it is strongly feeling the impact of the Navy’s move to bring in a wider swath of industry to contribute to its own ship maintenance workload.
