USCG focuses on polar icebreaker modernization

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The U.S. Coast Guard’s (USCG) FY2013 budget initiated a new project for the design and construction of a new polar icebreaker. The project received $7.609 million in FY2013 and $2.0 million in FY2014. The USCG’s proposed FY2015 budget requests $6 million to continue initial acquisition activities for the ship.

USCG polar icebreakers perform a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. The USCG’s two existing heavy polar icebreakers—Polar Star and Polar Sea— have exceeded their originally intended 30-year service lives. Polar Star was placed in caretaker status on July 1, 2006. Congress in FY2009 and FY2010 provided funding to repair it and return it to service for an additional 7 to 10 years of service; the repair work was completed and the ship was reactivated on December 14, 2012. On June 25, 2010, the USCG announced that Polar Sea had suffered an unexpected engine casualty; the ship was unavailable for operation after that. The Coast Guard placed Polar Sea in commissioned, inactive status on October 14, 2011.

The USCG’s third polar icebreaker—Healy—entered service in 2000. Compared to Polar Star and Polar Sea, Healy has less icebreaking capability (it is considered a medium polar icebreaker), but more capability for supporting scientific research. The ship is used primarily for supporting scientific research in the Arctic.

With the reactivation of Polar Star, the operational U.S. polar icebreaking fleet consists of one heavy polar icebreaker (Polar Star) and one medium polar icebreaker (Healy). The new polar icebreaker for which initial acquisition funding is requested in the FY2013 budget would replace Polar Star at about the time Polar Star’s 7- to 10-year reactivation period ends.

The USCG’s strategy document for the Arctic region, released on May 21, 2013, states that “The United States must have adequate icebreaking capability to support research that advances fundamental understanding of the region and its evolution,” and that “The Nation must also make a strategic investment in icebreaking capability to enable access to the high latitudes over the long-term.”

Potential issues for Congress regarding Coast Guard polar icebreaker modernization include the following:

the numbers and capabilities of polar icebreakers the USCG will need in the future;

the numbers and capabilities of polar icebreakers the USCG will need in the future;

the time line for acquiring a new polar icebreaker, which appears to have become less certain in the FY2015 budget submission;

the disposition of Polar Sea;

whether the new polar icebreaker initiated in the FY2013 budget should be funded with incremental funding (as proposed in the Coast Guard’s Five Year Capital Investment Plan) or full funding in a single year, as normally required under the executive branch’s full funding policy;

whether new polar icebreakers should be funded entirely in the USCG budget, or partly or entirely in some other part of the federal budget, such as the Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress Congressional Research Service Department of Defense (DOD) budget, the National Science Foundation (NSF) budget, or both;

whether to provide future icebreaking capability through construction of new ships or service life extensions of existing polar icebreakers; and

whether future polar icebreakers should be acquired through a traditional acquisition or a leasing arrangement.

Source: Federation of American Scientists

For more information please read:

Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress

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