FORT BELVOIR, Va. –
There is a sense of urgency in making sure the Coast Guard is using the Defense Logistics Agency to the fullest extent of its capabilities, a Coast Guard official said during a partnership day meeting held Sept. 26 at the McNamara Headquarters Complex.
With a changing global political environment and threats from China and Russia, the demands placed on the Coast Guard have never been greater, said Coast Guard Vice Adm. Paul Thomas, deputy commandant for mission support.
“We are in a historic era of strategic competition, and the U.S. Coast Guard is a unique instrument and national power in that regard,” he said.
The service is being asked by the National Security Council to increase its presence around the world and help other countries develop their own coast guards and navies, he added.
“In terms of demand, it’s really, truly never been higher, and in places that we’ve not extended our logistics lines to before. I have a real sense of urgency of understanding how you can help us meet that,” Thomas said.
There’s already steady growth of the Coast Guard tapping into DLA’s capabilities, growing from $244 million in 2021 to $330 million in 2023, said DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Michelle Skubic.
“That’s a good amount of increased use of DLA’s supplies and services to help the Coast Guard’s critically important mission,” Skubic said.
In addition to being warfighters, the Coast Guard is one of DLA’s top whole-of-government partners, ranking behind only the Department of Health and Human Services and the Agriculture Department, Skubic said.
The last Coast Guard-DLA partnership day was held in March 2022, with a lot of work going on behind the scenes since then, she said.
At the end of that last meeting, there were 15 action items set, with 11 completed before this meeting, Skubic said. Those items include getting a DLA liaison officer assigned to the Coast Guard, and getting the Coast Guard’s training center in Cape May, New Jersey, online with DLA’s warehouse management system.
“I think we need to challenge ourselves with, ‘What else? What’s next?’ That’s what today provides us with an opportunity to do,” Skubic said.
Thomas discussed some of the challenges the Coast Guard is facing, including a 10% gap in its enlisted workforce, constrained supply chains and a shrinking defense industrial base.
“For us to be able to leverage your private sector partners is critical to me,” Thomas said.
New Coast Guard ships are longer and more technologically complex, and have more shared systems with the Defense Department, he said. However, the lifecycle for critical systems is shrinking, from 20 to 30 years to three to five years.
“We have to do some things differently,” he added.
The theme for this year’s meeting was building partnerships ready for contested logistics. While there is no set frequency for these meetings, quarterly executive steering groups and training and visioning sessions between DLA and the Coast Guard were presented as options to increase discussions between partnership day meetings.