Government watchdog agency punches holes in new USCG icebreaker programme
US Coast Guard and US Navy leaders should re-evaluate the cost and development schedule for new Heavy Polar Icebreakers (HPIB), according to the government’s watchdog agency.
In a new report to Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the programme faces three main problems — an unrealistic cost estimate, overly optimistic delivery dates and unclear plans for how key technologies will fit in to the vessel.
‘We found that the lifecycle cost estimate used to inform the HPIB programme’s baselines substantially adheres to most cost estimating best practices; however, the estimate is not fully reliable,’ the GAO wrote told lawmakers.
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