WASHINGTON — The Coast Guard is once again under fire over its long-delayed "Polar Security Cutter" program.
As of May, the design of the lead ship was only 67% complete, delaying delivery by about five years until at least 2029.
An April Congressional Research Service report said costs for the program are expected to increase by 60%.
Wednesday, members of the House Homeland Security Committee confronted the Coast Guard's top admiral about the failures.
"You're supposed to have a ship in the water and you're still working on a design?" said Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Florida).
Admiral Linda Gagan responded: "We have a design; the design maturity is critical to reducing risk and onward schedule slippage and cost."
Gimenez fired back: "To be honest with you, to not even have the design done yet when you're supposed to have the ship in the water by now, that doesn't give us much co
On another concerning issue, the commandant confirmed that the Coast Guard is about 2,300 people short on its recruiting goals this year.