The plan that would have had dozens of rescue stations using 21st century equipment by 2005-07 has been scrapped and a new schedule has been mapped out that builds out the system between 2006 through 2011. The continental U.S. will be upgraded from 2006 through 2009 and Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Guam through 2011. As a region, such as the Gulf Coast or Northeast, comes online, each will be declared operational on a regional basis, according to the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard has struggled with technical issues as the $710 million system — originally estimated to cost $250 million in 1999 — was being field-tested and engineers and software programmers were sent back to the drawing boards. Designed and built by contractor General Dynamics to Coast Guard specifications, an additional eight subcontractors have also worked on the project. It is the agency’s second biggest acquisition project after its massive ship replacement program known as Deepwater.

The delays have not gone unnoticed in Congress, where House and Senate appropriators, committing hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars to the program over the last few years, have signaled their dismay by slashing appropriations.

The Administration’s budget request for FY06 for Rescue 21 was $101 million. This fall, the House-Senate budget conferees cut it to $41 million, less than half that requested. In FY05 the program received $161 million.

Reasons cited were the “high unobligated balances and extensive program delays.”

“Appropriations can attach a specific penalty to a missed deadline,” said John Rayfield, staff director of the House subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. He agreed the system would be a “huge improvement if it works the way it’s supposed to. We hoped it would have been done by now,” he added.

“Congress is supportive of the program,” said Leslie Cupp, of Rep. Harold Rogers (R-KY) staff. Rogers co-chaired the conference committee that made the $60 million cut. “Essentially the Coast Guard has two years of unobligated balances from 2004 and 2005, a total of $157 million. That’s a lot of funding.”

Testing, Testing

As this issue of BoatUS Magazine goes to press, the array that will be Rescue 21 is up and running at only two test stations, Atlantic City, NJ, and Eastern Shore, VA. The Coast Guard watch officers have both the new system and the old, antiquated one running concurrently as part of its final test. If the system works with no problems, then the build-out should be ready to begin. This initial testing was to have been completed by fall 2003.

“We don’t foresee the funding cut as a big problem. The schedule is being adjusted anyway,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Judy Silverstein, spokesperson for Rescue 21. “The delays were because Coast Guard standards were not being met but most problems have been ironed out now. Things that work in the lab or on paper do not necessarily work in the field.”

The system also includes dozens of “high sites,” which are radio towers capable of picking up signals from 100 miles offshore. Finding existing towers to lease space on or suitable sites to build new towers, requiring multiple approvals, permits and environmental impact studies, has also taken more time.

Capt. Dan Abel, newly assigned to take over the Rescue 21 project in late October, said the Coast Guard is creating a system that does not exist and the nature of cutting-edge technology has taken more time than anticipated.

“When you have 95,000 miles of coastline on which to pick up a one-watt signal two meters above the water some 20 miles out, that alone is a challenge,” Abel said. “It’s essentially a pacemaker for the Coast Guard. It has to work right all the time.”

The system must work within high degrees of reliability and accuracy, the towers must withstand a once-in-50-years storm and, in the event of a disaster, the system must be able to be restored to 75% of capacity within 24 hours with emergency backup systems (see sidebar).

The other system requirements include: tracking of all Coast Guard ships and aircraft, enhanced playback of transmissions, six voice and data radio channels instead of one, direction finding on all incoming calls to within two degrees of accuracy, digital selective calling, secure communications, and closing what once were 80 gaps in coastal VHF coverage.

“It’s a technically challenging system,” Abel explained. “It’s not until you put it out there and the users are actually using it that you find out what works. Part of the reprogramming was making it more streamlined for the operators.”

For example, Abel said users found that they had to move through too many display screens to reach the screen they wanted, so General Dynamics made changes.

Next Steps

Once Group Atlantic City and Eastern Shore’s Rescue 21 systems are signed off on, the next sites scheduled to be up and running in 2006 will be St. Petersburg, FL, Mobile, AL, Seattle, WA, and Port Angeles, WA. Two nearby areas are brought online in tandem in order to test geographic overlap coverage.

In 2007, the Coast Guard is aiming to have 14 more regions installed: New York, NY; Long Island; Moriches, NY; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Hampton Roads, VA; Key West, FL; Miami, FL; Mayport, FL; Galveston, TX; Corpus Christi, TX; Astoria, Portland and North Bend, OR.

Boat owners who have already upgraded their VHF marine radios to those with Digital Selective Calling (DSC) capability, can still make use of the feature for private hailing between two DSC-equipped vessels, fleet polling and position plotting. But mariners should not rely on DSC for sending a mayday and should continue to use Channel 16. The Coast Guard has no plans to discontinue a watch on Channel 16, now or in the future, and is not monitoring DSC Channel 70 with any reliability yet. That will come when Rescue 21 in a region is declared operational.

Boaters with DSC radios also need to register their radios in order to get a unique MMSI number and install it, similar to having your own cell phone number. MMSI numbers, which are given in blocks to BoatUS from the Federal Communications Commission in a partnership agreement, are available free at BoatUS.com/MMSI. Getting an official number means your boat’s information will be registered in the Coast Guard’s Search and Rescue Database. BoatUS downloads its MMSI registration list to the Coast Guard weekly.

Boaters who still need a FCC ship station license, may get their MMSI number by requesting it from the FCC on the license application. These would include people planning to travel abroad on their boats and those over 65 feet.