USCG commandant outlines Arctic strategy
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The Coast Guard’s mission off Alaska’s northern coast is the same as its mission off the Florida Keys: making sure that laws are enforced in the U.S. economic exclusion zone, as well as providing services such as search and rescue, Admiral Thad Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, told the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security in Anchorage Aug. 20. But the USCG mission in northern Alaska is challenged by a “tyranny of distance,” a harsh operating environment and a lack of infrastructure, Allen said.
“So, it’s a matter of projecting presence up there,” Allen said. “It’s a matter of U.S. sovereignty. It’s a matter of being able to achieve the effects that are expected of us to accomplish our already assigned missions in a place where the environment has been dramatically changed — and that really is a challenge.”
Three icebreakers The USCG currently operates three polar icebreakers, one of which is laid up, awaiting repairs. And for the past three summers the Coast Guard has carried out a forward deployment to the Arctic, as an initial step in beefing up its Arctic presence. The nature of that summer deployment has evolved, in response to discussions with the rural communities, and the Coast Guard is now finding that relatively low-cost but high-value activities, such as deploying medical teams and providing some veterinary support in villages, is proving very popular, Allen said.
But with an agreement with Canada over cooperative use of Arctic icebreakers likely needing a minimum of three operational U.S. icebreakers, and with a desire by USCG to achieve year-round Arctic operations, rather than deploying mobile forces seasonally, the Coast Guard is going to document the mission requirements for its future Arctic presence, as an essential first step in determining its equipment and infrastructure needs.
Three-part study “We’ve initiated a high-latitude study that’ll be in three parts,” Allen said. “The first part will focus on the current requirements for icebreakers. The second will be future requirements and then we will look at forward operating from the northern slope.”
As an example of the type of infrastructure issue that needs to be addressed, the closest point to the Arctic for fueling Coast Guard vessels is Kodiak, off southwestern Alaska, thus restricting Arctic marine operations to vessels capable of operating “800 to 900 miles from the gas station,” Allen said. And the only airports capable of handling a large aircraft such as a C-130 are in Nome, Barrow and Deadhorse, but these airports differ widely in their logistical support capabilities, he said.
—Alan Bailey
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