首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Along Washington State’s rocky coastline and inland waters, the red-and-white patrol boats and helicopters of the United States
Along Washington State’s rocky coastline and inland waters, the red-and-white patrol boats and helicopters of the United States
admin
2017-03-15
84
问题
Along Washington State’s rocky coastline and inland waters, the red-and-white patrol boats and helicopters of the United States Coast Guard are a familiar sight. More than a dozen coastguard ships and aircraft and nearly 6,000 personnel work there, rescuing stricken boaters, helping with seaport security, enforcing maritime laws and so on. The job can be dangerous: in late March a coastguard petty officer fell overboard and died, and last summer two divers serving on a Seattle-based coastguard icebreaker drowned while training near the Arctic Circle.
Although it is busy and obvious and well known, the coastguard has long been a poor sibling to the navy, army and air force. At the same time, its responsibilities have grown. In 2003 it became part of the Department of Homeland Security, with increased emphasis on protecting America’s 361 ports and 95,000 miles (153,000km) of coastline from terrorists.
Yet the 40,000-member service has to scratch desperately for money from Congress. Its boats are often in poor shape; some patrol cutters are over 50 years old. In 2005 USA Today ran a story on life aboard a 210-foot (64-metre) cutter, where equipment regularly malfunctioned and raw sewage flooded the sleeping quarters.
In an attempt to remedy all this, and to win back prestige, the coastguard launched "Deepwater" in the 1990s. This was a $24 billion upgrade of its ships and aircraft. The goal was a modernised fleet and air arm with complementary communications and tracking equipment, lower maintenance and better conditions for the crew. Contracts to start building were signed in 2002.
Five years on, Deepwater is plagued by catastrophe. A plan to enlarge the coastguard’s 110-foot cutters into more capable 123-foot boats was scrapped last autumn after the first eight refitted boats showed signs of cracking apart. The flagships of Deepwater—eight state-of-the-art 418-foot National Security Cutters, the first of which is nearing completion—have structural flaws that will probably shorten their projected 30-year service life and lead to costly repairs.
Then, in the middle of last month, the coastguard cancelled a $600 million contract to build the first 12 of 58 fast cutters. The vessels were going to be so heavy that one critic suggested they would be more like bricks than boats. These miseries have added millions of dollars to the Deepwater budget—and hampered the coastguard’s ability to do its work.
What went wrong? Two things, says Steve Ellis, a graduate of the US Coast Guard Academy and vice-president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a group based in Washington, DC. The first mistake was the decision by the coastguard’s admirals to think big: they wanted to attract the attention of contractors and, more important, Congress.
Rather than incrementally improving its ships and planes, the service tried to create what coastguard leaders called a "system-of-systems". The idea was to build scores of new cutters, small boats, manned and unmanned aircraft, all with complementary electronics and design features that worked in unison. At one fell swoop, thought the high-ups, all their troubles would be solved.
But Deepwater was an unwieldy concept built round an unwieldy buzzword. And no one in the coastguard had the vaguest idea how to manage it, says Mr. Ellis. So—its second mistake—the service had to rely on outside contractors, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, to run almost the whole programme as a joint venture. According to Kevin Jarvis, a retired coastguard captain who worked on Deepwater and testified before a Senate committee in February, these "world-class" contractors kept coastguard leaders in the dark about many of the problems. Meanwhile, design and performance goals became moving targets that the contractors regularly changed.
The coastguard is now trying to correct its mistakes, but most of these are not easily undone. It is borrowing ships from the navy to cover for the remodeled 123-foot patrol boats that don’t float. It intends to use its own bidding process to find replacements for the failed fast-cutter design. Procurement procedures have been sharpened. Most dramatically, on April 17th the coastguard announced that it is wresting control of Deepwater from the contractors, while the contract itself is being investigated by the Justice Department. But the hope of a unified set of equipment seems to have gone.
And the flaws in some of the service’s most important vessels, such as the National Security Cutter, will take years to correct.
At least Deepwater achieved one goal: the coastguard is now receiving plenty of attention. The Government Accountability Office, the federal government’s budgetary supervisor, has released scathing reports. In the Senate, Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington State, is holding hearings where the coastguard’s admirals have been flame-broiled. She is also pushing a bill that would overhaul Deepwater’s management. Mr. Ellis remarks that the coastguard has long been the Boy Scout of America’s armed services. It is now more like its drunken sailor.
What is the situation of coastguard now?
选项
答案
Now their situation is busy and obvious and well known. They are known as poor sibling to the navy army and air force. Its responsibilities have grown and scratch desperately for money from Congress.
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/HjSO777K
本试题收录于:
NAETI高级口译笔试题库外语翻译证书(NAETI)分类
0
NAETI高级口译笔试
外语翻译证书(NAETI)
相关试题推荐
In1959,Hawaiibecamethefiftiethstateintheunion.【C1】________CongresssofarawayinWashingtonD.C.,howdoHawaiiansg
In1959,Hawaiibecamethefiftiethstateintheunion.【C1】________CongresssofarawayinWashingtonD.C.,howdoHawaiiansg
OxfordandCambridgeUniversityBoatClubshavebothtakentheopportunitytotraveltoSpainthismonthtotraininlesstestin
OxfordandCambridgeUniversityBoatClubshavebothtakentheopportunitytotraveltoSpainthismonthtotraininlesstestin
女士们、先生们:晚上好。我想首先扼要地说一下中国的现状。大家知道,中国实行改革开放已走过了25年。在短短的四分之一个世纪里,中国取得了前所未有的重大进步和发展。25年前,中国的GDP只有l,473亿美元,而去年已达到14,000
女士们,先生们,上午好!中国和马来西亚是友好近邻,两国传统友谊源远流长。中国明朝郑和七下西洋,五次到达马六甲,同当地人民友好交往和互利通商,至今传为佳话。中马建交33年来,两国经贸合作持续快速发展。中国海关统计,2006年两国贸易额达371亿
7月13日晚,在莫斯科国际贸易中心,当国际奥委会主席萨马兰奇宣布北京获得2008年奥运会主办权时,一楼新闻中心的大屏幕,久久定格在一个动人的场面上:何振梁先生眼含热泪,与前来祝贺的国际奥委会委员逐个拥抱。72岁的何振梁说:“北京拿到了奥运会举办
实行改革开放以来,中国进入了发展最快、进步最大、变化最深刻的历史时期。1979年至2003年,中国经济年均增长9.4%,居民消费水平年均提高7%,进出口总额年均增长16%,成为世界上发展最快的国家之一。2003年,拥有13亿人口的中国,人均国内生产总值第一
下面你将听到的是一段有关矿产开发的讲话。中国经济高速发展,需要大量的矿产品及相关的能源与原材料加工制品。每年消耗的矿石量达60多亿吨,位居世界前列。中国政府为实现经济的可持续发展,在矿产资源勘查、开发领域制定了一系列的法律、法规和政策,
随机试题
战后国民党加强行政监督的措施之一是()
使承担义务、使做出保证vt.c______
氨茶碱静脉注射速度过快或浓度过高可产生下列哪些现象
麻醉期间急性左心力衰竭的主要诊断依据是
在周转轮系中,轴线位置变动的齿轮,即作自转,又作公转的齿轮,称为( )。
首次公开发行股票,并申请在经国务院批准设立的证券交易所上市的公司,股票上市前,应按()中的有关要求编制上市公告书。
某企业研制一项新技术,研究成功后申请获得专利权,该专利权的入帐价值应包括()。
“20世纪的大幕拉开了,紫禁城依然巍峨庄严,但太和殿前却留下了中国在20世纪的第一年遭受的国耻。”材料中“中国在20世纪的第一年遭受的国耻”是指()
143,152,224,314,323,()
关系运算中选择某些列形成新的关系的运算是
最新回复
(
0
)