The U.S. Coast Guard is at a crossroads, and there is no shortage of discussion about its Deepwater modernization program, including in the pages of Proceedings (for this issue's coverage of the troubled program, see pages 62-72). But rather than asking what went wrong and who should be hung out to dry, the two questions that should be asked are as follows. First, why is it going to take more than 20 years to complete this modernization program? And second, will non-state actors and Mother Nature reduce their operations tempo and play nice long enough for the Coast Guard to set sail with a modern inventory of cutters and aircraft?
