Fundamental limitations inherent in manual search planning methods have severely limited the application of advances in several areas that could improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. Coast Guard's search and rescue mission. These areas include advances in search theory, environmental data products, knowledge of detection profiles for various sensors, and knowledge of leeway behavior. The U.S. Coast Guard's computerized search planning aids have not kept up with advances in these areas or with technology in general. This report reviews the history and recent advances of search theory and its application to a variety of search problems. It then reviews the history of the U.S. Coast Guard's search planning methods, showing where search theory was initially applied, albeit in a necessarily very limited way, and where later modifications departed from the theoretical basis of the original methodology. Several computerized search planning decision support tools are analyzed and compared, as are the differences between an analytic approach and a simulation approach. The results are summarized in a matrix. The U.S. Coast Guard needs a new search planning decision support tool for search and rescue and other missions. This tool should use the simulation approach due to its power and flexibility as compared to analytic techniques.