27. YOU TESTIFIED THAT THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS IS LONG AND INVOLVED WITH 3-4 YEARS REQUIRED TO BRING A NEW SHIP ON LINE. DO YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR EXPEDITING THE PROCUREMENT PROCESS?

A: The length of the procurement process consists of several phases including identification of mission needs and platform requirements, design, obtaining AC&I funding through the budget, the bidding and contractual review phase, award of contract, and actual construction following award of the contract. Of these, the budget process may take as long as a year. The contract award process, from preparation of the solicitation and preparation, evaluation and analysis of proposals to the award of the contract takes 8 to 11 months. The procurement phase (8 to 11 months) could be reduced by specific congressional action to permit the Coast Guard to negotiate with a selected source, without advertising, for procurements in support of law enforcement activities.

28. HOW MUCH DID THE COAST GUARD PAY FOR EACH OF THE NEW SES'S OPERATING IN FLORIDA? WHAT DOES IT COST TO OPERATE THESE SHIPS FOR A YEAR?

A: The Coast Guard paid the contractor $5 million for each of the first two SES's, $3.75M for the third and $250,000 for initial spares. Each SES is expected to have direct costs (such as fuel, etc.) of about $975,000 annually.

29. HOW EFFECTIVE HAVE THE SES'S BEEN IN INTERDICTING DRUG SMUGGLING? IS THE COST OF THESE SHIPS JUSTIFIED BY THE RESULTS YOU HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ACHIEVE?

A: Their primary impact, as for any law enforcement resource, is their deterrent value, which for any law enforcement activity remains difficult if not impossible to quantify. Any effort to correlate the cost of the SES's with pounds of contraband seized or people arrested provides a poor measure of effectiveness. Recognizing this, I can provide some related accomplishments of the SES's. During their first 7-1/2 months of operation, the cutters SEA HAWK and SHEARWATER made nine seizures amounting to over 38,000 pounds of marijuana and 23 persons were arrested. While these are not extraordinary results, I feel they are not indicative of the SES's true potential. After the SES's were commissioned in November, 1982, it took several months of experimentation to determine a suitable operating concept. We are pleased with the preliminary results of these vessels, which were pressed into Coast Guard service in very short order, and we will continue to experiment to best use their capabilities. We believe their cost will be more than justified by the

results.

30-598 0-84--13

30.

A:

IN YOUR OPINION, COULD THE COAST GUARD DEVOTE MORE RESOURCES AND MANPOWER
TO CURTAILING DRUG SMUGGLING WITHOUT ADVERSELY AFFECTING PERFORMANCE OF YOUR
OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES?

No.

I do not believe that reprograming to provide additional resources or manpower for curtailing drug smuggling could be done without serious detrimental effects on the performance of our other responsibilities. The temporary reprogramings required during the South Florida Task Force build-up and initial Haitian Migrant Interdiction Operations (HMIO) efforts caused shortages and hardships throughout the Coast Guard. The resources obtained during the last few years have been used to either replace older, uneconomical facilities, or to further supplement the Task Force. The Coast Guard will continue to dedicate facilities acquired in the future to performance or support of drug interdiction missions to the extent they are capable.

PROGRAM STANDARDS AND PERFORMANCE

A:

A:

WHAT PROGRAM STANDARDS HAVE YOU DEVELOPED TO MEASURE THE SUCCESS
OF YOUR DRUG ENFORCEMENT MISSION?

The Coast Guard does not unilaterally establish standards. The Adminis-
tration sets these as a product of the Federal Strategy. Coast Guard
efforts are based on maximizing the probability of detection within our
current assets, both aviation and surface, and then maximizing our
probability of intercept of smuggling vessels. The South Florida Task
Force on Crime earlier this year estimated that the task force efforts
were intercepting 25 to 30 percent of the total maritime tonnage of
marijuana shipped by sea. The results of a CIA study in 1982 projected
that an interdiction level of a little over 70 percent would make maritime
shipments economically infeasible. This must be done in conjunction with
increased enforcement elsewhere because unilateral Coast Guard action
would simply force smugglers to other sources and transportation modes.

(b) ARE YOU MEETING THESE STANDARDS?

There really are no established standards. However, FY 83 seizures have
shown a decline. This would seem to indicate that in-so-far-as the
maritime part of the coordinated strategy is concerned we are having a
deterrence effect. We are having difficulty, however, in measuring
this effect because intelligence sources tell us the 1982 crop was not
good. Since the 1983 crop is forecast to be better, we expect more will
be available for shipment.