Braxton Taylor
The Coast Guard is planning a radical redesign that includes more personnel, improved technology and acquisition systems, and changes to its organization that include a service secretary.
Exact details of the service’s transformation, known as “Force Design 2028,” have not been released, but plans call for changes in personnel policy, including modernization of the Coast Guard Reserve and civilian management; restructuring at the headquarters level; and improvements to acquisitions processes and information technology systems, according to an April 3 news release.
“We are executing transformational change to renew the Coast Guard,” Acting Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday said in a statement to Military.com on Friday. “Force Design 2028 will ensure the Coast Guard remains Semper Paratus, Always Ready, to serve the American people.”
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According to the Coast Guard, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem directed the restructure. Sean Plankey, billed as “senior adviser to the secretary for the Coast Guard,” is leading the effort.
Plankey, a Coast Guard Academy alumnus who deployed in 2013 to Afghanistan, is the Trump administration’s nominee to head the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He previously served as the National Security Council’s director of cyber policy and the Navy’s chief information officer.
Unlike its fellow services in the Department of Defense, the Coast Guard does not have a service secretary. Its military leader, the commandant, reports directly to the Homeland Security secretary. Force Design 2028 calls for creating a secretariat along with several other headquarters positions, including a director of staff, a Force Design implementation team, and an assistant commandant position for operational integration and response policy.
The operational integration and response policy assistant commandant would be responsible for increasing “decision-making speed and resource allocation to operational commanders” and working with the Joint Staff and across the national security federal infrastructure, according to the Coast Guard.
Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia introduced a bill last week that would create the Coast Guard secretary position. According to the proposed legislation, the secretary would report directly to the Department of Homeland Security secretary and, in cases when the Coast Guard serves as a service within the Navy, would advise the Navy secretary on Coast Guard-related matters.
According to the bill, the commandant would report to the civilian Coast Guard secretary and, in cases where the Coast Guard operates under the Navy, report to the Navy secretary.
“The establishment of a secretary of the Coast Guard is an important step in ensuring our nation’s maritime security is led with the strength and efficiency it deserves to ensure it can fulfill its mission and adapt to any challenges,” Scott said in a news release April 1.
Rep. Mike Ezell, R-Miss., introduced similar legislation in the House the same day.
According to the Coast Guard, efforts have already begun on the force restructuring, beginning with a review of physical standards to align with the Defense Department’s standards “to the maximum extent possible.”
In March, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a review of military standards “pertaining to physical fitness, body composition and grooming, which includes but is not limited to beards.”
The Coast Guard has physical fitness requirements for recruits, cadets and officer candidates and fitness tests for certain operational units but does not have a standardized physical fitness evaluation program for all members.
It does, however, conduct body composition screenings. In 2021, the service instituted an option that members could select abdominal circumference as a measurement rather than the traditional tape test of different parts of the body that negatively affected some women and extremely muscular service members whose measurements didn’t meet the standards set for their height.
Force Design 2028 also will “restore maximum discretion” to commanders and officers-in-charge on the use of nonjudicial punishment.
In 2023, President Joe Biden signed an executive order that standardized the burden of proof for the services to issue nonjudicial punishments, requiring that commanders need only a “preponderance of evidence” to mete out punishment. Previously, some of the services required proof beyond a reasonable doubt for a commander to punish a member.
“This change is consistent with the ultimate responsibility entrusted to commanders to maintain good order and discipline at their units,” according to the Coast Guard.
Among the planned organizational changes under the redesign is an effort to delegate operational responsibility to the “appropriate levels of command” — for example, giving coxswains and commanding officers of cutters pursuing noncompliant vessels use-of-force decision authority — and restructuring the offices of the deputies for personnel readiness and material readiness.
According to the service, the changes are needed to provide better support to service members and their families and oversee management of ships, aircraft and shore infrastructure.
Regarding acquisitions and contracts, the service plans to simplify procedures and authorize direct purchases on some goods and services to speed up delivery, and work with the Defense Innovation Unit to improve contracting speed and procurement, as well as transparency.
And the redesign calls for the service to adopt cutting-edge technology systems to improve data sharing and situational and operational awareness.
According to the service, a “Rapid Response Rapid Prototype Team” will oversee technology solutions for all aspects of Coast Guard performance, including operations, engineering, acquisitions, finance, information technology, logistics, data science and change management.
Lunday has served as acting commandant since Jan. 21, when the Trump administration fired Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan for loss of confidence in her command based on recruiting concerns, border security and the service’s focus on diversity.
The service has not announced a nominee for the permanent position of commandant.
Lunday has a strong operational background, having led the Coast Guard’s 14th District and Atlantic Area, but also experience in cyber operations, leading the service’s Cyber Command and working as director of exercises and training at U.S. Cyber Command.
In a statement to Military.com, Lunday said Force Design 2028 will make the service more “agile, capable and responsive.”
“FD 2028 is the way forward for our service and will ensure our ability to ensure U.S. national security and economic prosperity for decades to come,” Lunday said.
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