Deepwater Program to pursue foreign sales. (Washington Pulse).Within days of awarding a $17 billion contract to build a new fleet of Deepwater ships and aircraft for the Coast Guard, the U.S. government embarked upon an effort to sell the same platforms to allies around the world. The Coast Guard is betting that many nations will be interested in its new assets. Most countries have navies that are more like the U.S. Coast Guard than our Navy, said Rear Adm. Patrick Stillman, program executive officer of the Integrated Deepwater Program. They operate primarily along their coasts, and they sail relatively inexpensive, small ships, nor aircraft carriers or nuclear submarines, he said. For this reason, U.S. Navy ships increasingly do not meet other countries' needs, said James Jochum, assistant commerce secretary for export administration. Since the end of the Cold War, foreign orders for U.S. warships have dropped 60 percent, he said. During the past five years alone, U.S. shipyards have lost 5,000 jobs. U.S. officials hope that the Deepwater program will begin to turn this around, and the initial response has been good. Just two days after the contract was announced in late June, a conference sponsored by NDIA NDIA National Defense Industrial Association NDIA New Doha International Airport (Qatar) and the Navy's International Programs Office--which is helping the Coast Guard market Deepwater-attracted representatives from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand New Zealand (zē`lənd), island country (2005 est. pop. 4,035,000), 104,454 sq mi (270,534 sq km), in the S Pacific Ocean, over 1,000 mi (1,600 km) SE of Australia. The capital is Wellington; the largest city and leading port is Auckland. and Sweden. In order for many countries to buy Deepwater technology, however, two hurdles have to be overcome, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Tome Walters, director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency The Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), as part of the United States Department of Defense, provides financial and technical assistance, transfer of defense matériel, training and services to allies, and promotes military-to-military contacts. . With little extra money in their defense budgets, most countries will need loans from the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. to afford any purchases, he said. He also said that many of those nations have protectionist pro·tec·tion·ism n. The advocacy, system, or theory of protecting domestic producers by impeding or limiting, as by tariffs or quotas, the importation of foreign goods and services. defense industries, who will resist allowing their governments to buy U.S.-made systems. U.S. contractors can overcome this barrier, to some extent, by forming joint ventures with foreign companies, said Rear. Adm. Don Newsome, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy Assistant Secretary of the Navy (abbrev. "ASN") is the title given to certain senior officials in the U.S. Department of the Navy. They serve as chief assistants to the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV). for international programs. The Joint Strike Fighter A strike fighter is a fighter aircraft which is also capable of attacking surface targets, including ships. It differs from an attack aircraft in that the aircraft remains a capable fighter. has been handled this way, successfully, thus far, he said. Stillman agreed. "I personally believe that Deepwater could be the Joint Strike Fighter for the maritime community." |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion