Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft News

Maintaining the system of buoys and beacons that guide mariners through our nation’s waterways is the United States Coast Guard’s oldest mission. Tracing its roots to the ninth law passed by Congress in 1790 that moved lighthouses under Federal control, the U.S. Lighthouse Service and its vast portfolio of buoys, beacons, buoy tenders and lightships were a founding part of the U.S. Coast Guard in 1939. Along with the mission, many of the beacons the Coast Guard maintains today date back centuries.

In September, 2016, an U.S. shipyard and the Canadian design business of an Italian-owned Norwegian shipyard won the largest vessel procurement contract in U.S. Coast Guard history. Now, Eastern Shipbuilding will build nine — and possibly many more — Vard Marine designs in its Panama City, Fla., shipyard. Early impressions are of a unique vessel not so unlike comparable European designs by Vard Holdings or parent company Fincantieri. An oceangoing hull of clean, classic — some would say Canadian — lines are the platform for an electronics and weapons payload designed…

Adm. Zukunft: “If you take the mariners away, what is the world going to look like 10 years from now? The House subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation held a hearing Monday on “President’s Fiscal Year 2017 Budget Request For Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Programs” during which Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft and U.S. Maritime Administrator Paul “Chip” Jaenichen stressed the critical need for the Jones Act to protect our economic and national security.

The U.S. Coast Guard released a proposed acquisition timeline and requirements for two new heavy U.S. icebreakers that could cost $1 billion each and said it would meet with interested companies during an industry day in March. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft told an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that notice was intended to get information from companies about their ability to build and develop icebreakers that would be in use for 40 years and to explore options such as leasing.

U.S. Today the U.S. shipbuilding and ship repair industry responded to unfounded claims purporting a causal link between the Jones Act and the loss of the cargo container ship El Faro in Hurricane Joaquin earlier this month -- a loss that tragically claimed the lives of 33 crewmembers who were carrying out their duties in service to the Puerto Rican people. The entire maritime industry has been mourning this loss. In the wake of this tragedy, critics have attempted to blame the loss of the ship on the Jones Act requirement that ships operating between two U.S. ports be U.S. built -- claiming that if operators could purchase less costly foreign ships they would replace their vessels more often and avoid similar tragedies. “To imply that vessels that do not have to comply with rigorous U.S.

I had never personally met with U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft before I sat with him in his office at Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, D.C., last month, but having sat with a long list of government, military and corporate leaders in my time, my expectations were someone who was confident, focused and, well, commanding. He’s all that and more, but what I did not expect was that the Commandant would be faster than I to the Tweet! (I rationalize by telling myself that his Public Affairs staff offers a quick hand in this regard).

The U.S. Coast Guard Commandant addresses a packed Passenger Vessel Association meeting and outlines both the challenges and opportunities facing his organization. Long Beach, CA: Less than 12 hours after the New England Patriots’ late game heroics stunned the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Paul Zukunft found himself facing a standing room only audience of Passenger Vessel Association (PVA) delegates, all thirsting to hear what the Coast Guard and the government’s regulatory sector had in store for them in the coming months and years. Clearly, and despite some late night celebrations (or tearful regrets), few, if any delegates slept in on Monday morning.