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The Coast Guard has completed the fourth of five planned phases of Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star’s service life extension program, in Vallejo, California, with the cutter departing the San Francisco Bay Area for its homeport in Seattle, on Aug. 22, 2024.

As part of the In-Service Vessel Sustainment Program, Coast Guard Cutter Sequoia completed a major maintenance availability and sailed away from Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore on Aug. 21, 2024. This is the 15th of 16 seagoing buoy tenders to undergo this work.

Coast Guard Cutter Legare arrived at Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore on June 24, 2024, as the fourth medium endurance cutter to undergo service life extension program (SLEP) work and the second to receive all major SLEP work items, including replacement of the main diesel engines.

In-Service Vessel Sustainment Program

In-Service Vessel Sustainment (ISVS) is the Coast Guard’s strategic class-by-class evaluation of its vessels to determine what major maintenance and upgrades are necessary for them to reach or extend their service lives.

Why this program?

As vessels age, systems become obsolete and the cost and time spent on maintenance becomes prohibitive. The Coast Guard has determined that strategic major maintenance and recapitalization can improve reliability of its vessels, help control maintenance costs, and increase time underway conducting missions. If necessary, additional work can be completed to allow vessels to operate efficiently past their service life until replacements are procured. Systematic evaluation of Coast Guard surface assets and creation of a recurring Acquisition Construction and Improvement funding stream through ISVS provides a cost-effective way to ensure the service has the surface assets necessary to complete its missions. ISVS work can be classified as service life extension programs, major maintenance availabilities (MMAs) or mission effectiveness projects.

A cutter capital asset management plan, which lays out a system of evaluative criteria, was developed to prioritize cutter classes to be included in the ISVS Program. The 140-foot icebreaking tug was identified as the highest priority; the program activities are complete with the objective of accomplishing a 15-year service life extension of the nine-vessel fleet. The program is now moving forward with follow-on HVAC improvements.

The ISVS program is the successor of the Mission Effectiveness Project (MEP), which replaced systems on the 210-foot and 270-foot medium endurance cutters and the 110-foot Island-class patrol boats to extend their operational lives until the arrival of new national security cutters, fast response cutters and offshore patrol cutters.

How are upgrades implemented?

All ISVS Program work is performed using the most cost-effective option to meet cost, schedule and performance requirements. Current ISVS Program work is performed by the Coast Guard at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland and commercial ship yards. The yard demonstrated its ability to efficiently plan and execute major ship overhaul projects during MEP.

Most current ISVS work is performed at the Coast Guard Yard in Curtis Bay, Maryland. The yard demonstrated its ability to efficiently plan and execute major ship overhaul-projects during MEP.

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The In-Service Vessel Sustainment Program is part of the Coast Guard’s long-term recapitalization and sustainment strategy for the in-service fleet of cutters.

The ISVS Program consists of two kinds of projects:

Major maintenance availability (MMA) – Planned life cycle events for targeted work and recapitalization of obsolescent/unsupportable systems, necessary for the cutter to achieve its design service life. MMAs facilitate fleet maintenance and increased availability for missions during a cutter’s later years of service. Shifts in the cutter’s homeport and assigned crew are considered in the planning process.
Service life extension program (SLEP) – Addresses specific systems and major maintenance to extend the service life of the vessel beyond the original design service life. A SLEP is not designed to increase a ship’s capability; it only extends the service life of the cutter by replacing obsolete, unsupportable or maintenance-intensive equipment and by seeking standardization of configuration issues.

Current ISVS projects:

Service life extension program for the 140-foot Bay-class icebreaking tugs to restore mission readiness and extend the service life of this nine-cutter fleet by approximately 15 years. The fleet was commissioned between 1978 and 1988, with most hulls operating beyond their planned 30-year service life. Critical reliability and supportability issues have severely degraded the fleet’s mission readiness. Completed efforts include repair of corroded and damaged hull plating, structural refurbishment and replacement of unsupportable or maintenance-intensive equipment. The program is currently continuing with HVAC improvements.
Service life extension program for Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star to recapitalize a number of major systems and extend the service life of the cutter until the second polar security cutter is operational. The SLEP will occur in a five-year phased production between 2021 and 2025. Polar Star is a 399-foot cutter, the service’s only active heavy polar icebreaker, which was commissioned in 1977. Phases 1 and 2 are complete.
Major maintenance availability for 225-foot Juniper-class seagoing buoy tenders to ensure the 16 vessels in the class achieve the full 30-year designed service life. Work includes completion of hull and structural repairs and replacement of obsolete, unsupportable or maintenance-intensive equipment, including updates to the machinery control system, propellers and HVAC systems. The project started in July 2015. Twelve hulls are complete.
Service life extension program for the 270-foot medium endurance cutters involves targeted system replacement to address system reliability, supportability, obsolescence and interoperability. This work will include upgrades or replacements to the electrical power generation and distribution system as well as the main propulsion engines. The mission is to facilitate continued operations during transition to the offshore patrol cutter by extending the service life of 270-foot cutters for up to 10 years. Work began on one prototype vessel at the Coast Guard Yard in July 2021 and on the second cutter in April 2022. Full production is scheduled to begin in 2023.
Major maintenance availability program for the 175-foot coastal buoy tenders has been approved, beginning with the planned order of long lead-time material to support future production. Coastal buoy tenders serve the Coast Guard in a variety of missions and are tasked with maintaining aids to navigation, search and rescue, law enforcement, migrant interdiction, marine safety inspections, environmental protection and natural resources management. Keeper-class cutters are also used for light ice breaking operations.
Service life extension program for Coast Guard Cutter Healy will occur in a five-year phased production between 2026 and 2030. Healy is a 420-foot cutter, the service’s only active medium polar icebreaker, which was commissioned in 1999. When completed, the SLEP effort will recapitalize a number of major systems and extend the service life of the cutter until the polar security cutters are operational.
Service life extension program for the 47-foot motor lifeboats (MLB) is being conducted in partnership with the Boats Acquisition Program to take advantage of the program's subject matter expertise, reduce support costs and improve operational availability. The service life extension work will significantly overhaul up to 107 of the service’s 117 47-foot MLB fleet. The 47-foot MLB fleet was placed in service during the 1997-2002 timeframe with an expected service life of 25 years. The 47-foot MLB SLEP was initiated to extend the useful life of the MLB fleet by 20 years through 2047. The SLEP will reduce support costs and improve operational availability through renewal of the propulsion, electrical, steering, towing, navigation, and hull and structural systems, along with other minor work items.