Adm. Karl Schultz delivered a ‘State of the Coast Guard’ address in Los Angeles.
Adm. Karl Schultz, the Coast Guard commandant, delivers the 2019 State of the Coast Guard Address at Coast Guard Base Los Angeles-Long Beach on March 21, 2019. By Dan Lamothe Dan Lamothe Reporter covering the Pentagon and the U.S.
Schultz, speaking on a lawn overlooking the port of Los Angeles, requested a 5 percent increase in the service’s 2020 operations budget, up to $7.9 billion, and an overall budget of $11.34 billion, up from $10.6 billion. The service has long had a reputation for keeping aging equipment working, and Schultz said it faces “very real readiness challenges” that must be dealt with.
Schultz did not mention the reprogramming in his speech but addressed it in an interview Tuesday as he flew from Washington to California. Money was reprogrammed, but the service is part of the “DHS team” and has received strong support from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, he said. Schultz indicated that the problems were not as severe as characterized. The service should be “pretty much reconstituted” by May, he said, and is about 75 percent of the way back now.
Each national security cutter will be equipped with a ScanEagle unmanned aircraft, something the service already is experimenting with in cocaine interdiction operations in the eastern Pacific, Schultz said. “There are other folks who say: ‘Hey maybe you don’t need six of these. Maybe it’s four of these or five of these.’ There might be some negotiating space,” he said. “It’s the three polar security cutters that is really first and foremost in my mind."
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