The U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy Integrated Program Office announced Dec. 19 the approval to start construction of the nation’s first polar security cutter in more than 50 years. This icebreaker, being built by Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss, will enhance the United States’ ability to operate in the challenging Arctic and Antarctic regions, which are increasingly vital to national security and scientific exploration.
The approval incorporates eight prototype fabrication assessment units, part of the program’s phased approach. These units, either underway or planned, use a “crawl-walk-run” strategy as the shipbuilder refines techniques and gets the workforce skills up to speed before transitioning to full-blown production.
The icebreaker program is, however, behind schedule. It was supposed to have delivered the icebreaker this year, but now it may not be done until 2029. the delays include the fact that Halter Marine, which won the contract out of the five companies that bid on it, was bought this year by Bollinger.
The Polar Security Cutter class addresses the aging state of the U.S. Coast Guard’s operational polar icebreaking fleet, which is down to just one heavy icebreaker, the 399-foot Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star, commissioned in 1976, and one medium icebreaker, the 420-foot Coast Guard Cutter Healy, commissioned in 1999.
To supplement the two, the Coast Guard recently acquired a commercially available polar icebreaker, M/V Aiviq, a 360-foot U.S.-built polar class 3-equivalent icebreaker, to bolster presence and mission capacity in the Arctic.
Since the Northern Sea Passage will see heavier traffic, we should have a minimum of 4-5 Ice Breakers. Especially, once folks figure out that the only hope for producing AKLNG, the pipeline to Southcentral is known to be uneconomical, and constructing the LNG infrastructure on the Slope is the only chance at developing this potential industry. Existing Ice Breaker Assets would help make this very attractive, shipping AKLNG directly from the Slope to market destinations, just like the Ruskies do.
Thank You Honorable Senator Lisa Murkowski.
She sure did a good job on this alright. It only took her 22 years to get a used ship that needs overhauled and isn’t in service, and the promise of a new icebreaker that hasn’t yet even begun to be built and might be built by 2029. Yep the Honorable Senator Lisa Murkowski has almost not really finally maybe delivered on a project she’s spent 22 years on and it could maybe possibly be another 5 before that promise is hopefully maybe filled. 27 years and there might be one new and one old refurbished ice breaker for all her hard work. At that rate we could get to having another ice breaker by the time they retire the used refurbished one and the Healy, of course the Polar Star will have long since been retired.
Hip-hip-hurray for the Honorable Senator Lisa Murkowski and a job not quite yet well done…well almost maybe could be done in half a decade possibly.
Why? Juno is irrelevant. Anchorage is very obviously the best choice for ports, or maybe Cold Bay or Kodiak, but Juno?
Repurposing and reestablishing Port Facility @ Adak, combining it with a US Navy Base, would be the most practical location. Unfortunately, practicality gets thrown aside for narcissistic political points – optics.
The extra 4-days on its round-trip patrol from Juneau pales in comparison to the extra cost of maintaining support in far-flung, treeless, windswept, forsaken Adak. Then there is the human factor. The USCG and Scientists’ families would view Juneau as isolated enough but living in Adak would be seen as an extreme hardship. Morale of the crew is a key consideration.
Kodiak is the place and even it is awfully far from the polar waters. But it already has a lot of the infra structure. Stationing in Juneau seems totally foolish and more to do with politics than common sense.
Contrary to “totally foolish,” Juneau is perfect. There is local technical support and infrastructure. It supports the largest silver mine in USA as well as additional world-class mines. There is a USCG Station as well as headquarters for the entire 17th District. There is twice-weekly barge service from Seattle for supplies. There are 3-flights nonstop to/from Seattle per day; same to Anchorage; additional flights with layovers. There is a robust education system including University of Alaska SE. Recreation such hocky rink, health clubs, tennis, basketball, softball leagues, indoor pools, libraries, ski facility, fishing, hunting, hiking, arts, museums, theaters. Fuel depots. Critical point: a sheltered deep-water port with shore power and water/sewer utilities. The distance from “polar waters” is more than offset by the multiple features.
Jeanette, it needs to be a deep-water port. Anchorage is not.
Was suppposed to delivered this year – a floating functioning ship! But no!! Far too many cooks stirring that soup from politicians in Congress to far too many desk sailors trying to fool with the latest technoloy – resulting in total paralysis and NO progress. We need 3-4 more ice breakers. Get a flippin ship built. Trump – clean out the upper level deadwood in the military and get some DOers in there – keep the politicians out of it too.
A previous article said the boat would be stationed at Juneau. Yep, that makes a lot of sense – home port as far from the Arctic Ocean as you can get.
Well if you are serious about a place to keep the ice breaker – Nome
You can always build facilities and i believe there is port facilities, they will have to be upgraded and build infrastructure for support.
But, what could you lose.
I predict that NONE of these vessels will be based in Alaska. It is too cold, too dark in the winter and Alaskans can get surly. It would be much more fashionable for the crews to live in Seattle or even San Francisco. Who cares about the actual mission? Besides it will be easier to fill the LGBTQ+ quotas in Seattle or California. Not to worry folks, the Deep State reptiles will out-maneuver the Donald and Senator Sullivan on this one. (Lisa will be quietly supporting the reptiles anyway.)
Home port in Pituffik.
I remain confused, as the Arctic ice pack was supposed to be disappearing due to manmade global warming due to CO2 emissions. If there is no ice, why do we need icebreakers?
Lisa has some ‘Splainn to do. Cheers –
“Crawl-walk-run” strategy. Hmm. This sounds like the contract was awarded to an unqualified builder, and we’ll first have to pay for them to learn how to build icebreakers. Sounds a little bit DEI-ish to me.
How many are y’all Coasties? My husband and I are dying of laughter at a lot of the comments. Adak and Attu are a hard pass, to far, no infrastructure, too isolated. Ketchikan, Sitka, infrastructure yes but facilities/area too small, Juneau will have same issue. Juneau would be more political choice than needs of the service choice, it’s the capital. Homer and Kodiak both have the infrastructure, deep water access, ability to expand and access for families. For over 50+ years, the Sea and Star home ported in Seattle and were able to uphold their missions in the Coast Guard. The Sea and Star one would go north, the other south, sometimes for 6+ months; they would comeback to Seattle and switch, the other would go north and the other south. Now the Sea has been cannibalised to keep the Star afloat, the Healy can only go to the Arctic not Antarctica and we bought some used broken down M/V, without a name (that is very bad luck) that’s going to take who knows how much $$ and time to get up and ready. Oh and it will by lots of $$$$$$$$$ bc the contractors never get it right the first time or on time but they always over charge and use inferior materials when possible. Oh and the person asking about the polar ice caps… in history it has been observed that when one cap is shrinking the other cap is expanding, the change is constant. And the icebreakers are not just icebreakers, they are scientific vessels, teams of researchers are on them to study all the environmental and marine life issues. Icebreaking is just 1 mission, the vessels and their crews perform multiple tasks and missions daily.
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