The U.S. Coast Guard is accelerating a servicewide digital transformation effort that aims to modernize operations, improve mission outcomes, and deliver artificial intelligence (AI) tools to every desktop by 2027.
Brian Campo, the Coast Guard’s director of technology readiness and chief data and AI officer, outlined the service’s digital strategy during a June 10 discussion on Federal News Network’s Cloud Exchange.
The strategy, released in May, focuses on digital transformation, data modernization, AI adoption, and next-generation maritime systems.
“The goal is more minutes on mission,” Campo said, highlighting a shift from networks and hardware to people and mission outcomes.
Coastal Sentinel and the software yard
One of the Coast Guard’s top modernization priorities is Coastal Sentinel, a next-generation maritime surveillance, command and control, and communications platform being developed under the service’s Force Design 2028 initiative.
According to the Coast Guard, its current sensor and command systems are obsolete and lack integration with capabilities used by other federal and state agencies. Coastal Sentinel is intended to replace those systems with a distributed network of sensors and services that use AI to collect, process, and analyze operational data in near-real-time.
“Coastal Sentinel is our first priority. That’s a massive overhaul of a number of monolithic systems,” Campo said. “Really, what we’re trying to do there is, instead of huge monoliths, thinking about them as distributed services.”
Supporting that effort is the creation of a “software yard” designed to expand internal software development capabilities and increase the use of low-code tools.
“[This] is a chance for us to bring some of our really amazing workforce, give them a place to come in, learn some of our software development, leverage things like low-code platforms, and then give them a chance to be directly responsible to the customer,” Campo explained.
Supporting maintenance operations with AI
Campo pointed to maintenance operations as one of the earliest and most promising applications for AI.
Maintenance personnel often spend significant time consulting paper documentation, recording notes, and updating systems manually. The Coast Guard is working to digitize those processes and connect maintenance activities directly to logistics systems.
The service plans to integrate digitized maintenance procedures with logistics platforms before adding richer contextual and operational data to support decision-making, he said.
Campo also stressed his goal of delivering AI agents to every desktop by 2027.
“I am not letting go of that goal. I am going to try and drag that kicking and screaming into fruition, because honestly, I owe that to the workforce,” he said.
Turning data into an operational asset
Campo said data modernization remains one of the most challenging priorities for the Technology Readiness Directorate.
“Data is an operational asset, just like a cutter, just like a helicopter, just like a plane … [but] it is the hardest part of just about anything we do,” he said.
The Coast Guard continues to grapple with legacy systems and disconnected logistics platforms, but Campo said the service is maturing its data architecture through a framework that includes domain teams, data engineers, analytics specialists, and executive decision-makers.
Those groups are working together to create an integrated data environment that collects and processes data and makes it available for operational teams.
Campo also highlighted a new unit called Decision Advantage, which is focused on turning data into operational insights through analytics tools, dashboards, and AI models.