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January 2016

Vol. 21, No. 4 Week of January 24, 2016

Coast Guard publishes icebreaker specification

Hopes for funding in 2017 federal budget to address shortfall in U.S. strategic heavy icebreaker capabilities in polar regions

ALAN BAILEY

Petroleum News

In the latest development in a lengthy debate over the inadequacies of the U.S. icebreaker fleet, on Jan. 13 Adm. Paul Zukunft, U.S. Coast Guard commandant, announced that the Coast Guard was posting a polar heavy icebreaker specification on the FedBizOpps website, to give industry a head start on a potential opportunity to bid on icebreaker construction, should Congress appropriate the necessary funding. Speaking during an event organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Zukunft commented that the Coast Guard hopes that the 2017 federal budget will include funding to move forward with an icebreaker project but that, at this point, there is no federal appropriation for icebreaker acquisition.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and member of the Committee on Appropriations, who spoke at the same event, commented on President Obama’s statement during his recent visit to Alaska, in which the president mentioned an intention to accelerate the replacement of the country’s only operational heavy icebreaker, the Polar Star.

“An announcement is good, but what you really need is money to go behind the announcement,” Murkowski said. “You need to make sure that it’s more than just words.”

While the 40-year-old Polar Star is reaching the end of its operational life, its sister ship, the Polar Sea, is laid up in port. The only other U.S. icebreaker, the Coast Guard Cutter Healy, is a medium duty icebreaker, unsuitable for year-round operations. And the Polar Star is currently operating in the Antarctic, supporting strategic infrastructure there, Zukunft said, referencing U.S. staffed Antarctic research stations.

Murkowski commented that the Russians are currently in the process of constructing 14 new icebreakers of various designs.

Consultation with stakeholders

Zukunft said that, in preparing its new polar icebreaker specification, the Coast Guard had consulted a wide variety of stakeholders in the Arctic region to develop a set of operational requirements that would drive the icebreaker design.

“I want to make sure I have stable requirements, so that I can then turn to industry and say ‘this is what we need, and we’re not going to change our mind halfway into this process,’” he said.

The specification requires the icebreaker to be capable of breaking through 8-foot-thick ice at a continuous speed of 3 knots and through 21-foot ridged ice. The vessel must be able to leave in its wake a channel at least 83 feet wide. And the vessel, which needs cargo handling and helicopter operation capabilities, must have a minimum range of 21,500 nautical miles at 12 knots in ice-free waters, with the capability of a sustained speed of 15 knots.

Zukunft commented that, while the U.S. Navy sees a strategic need to recapitalize its fleet of ballistic missile submarines, each of which costs some $8 billion, the Coast Guard sees a strategic need for polar icebreakers. It will be necessary in the short term to decide whether to restore the Polar Sea, or whether to mothball that vessel as a source of spare parts for the Polar Star, to ensure the continuing operation of at least one heavy U.S. icebreaker until a new icebreaker can be constructed, Zukunft said.

The Coast Guard’s role

As the United States currently chairs the Arctic Council of the eight Arctic nations, the Coast Guard has a crucial role to play in enabling diplomatic maneuvering room in the Arctic, in a way that big navies cannot, Zukunft said. The Arctic nations have formed an Arctic coast guard forum, in which the U.S. Coast Guard commandant sits next to the equivalent Russian four-star general for a strategic dialogue, setting aside disputes elsewhere in the world to focus on the Arctic.

“We do not want the Arctic to be the next military front, but if we stay entrenched in our isolated mindsets that is exactly what we will have,” Zukunft said.

Currently, the U.S. Coast Guard only sends its vessels into the Arctic seas during the summer ice-free season. And, with 32 vessels traversing the Northern Sea Route last year around the northern coast of Russia, does the United States need to send an icebreaker around that route, to exert freedom of navigation, Zukunft wondered.

Meanwhile, the Healy has been mapping the waters of the U.S. extended Arctic continental shelf, a region that is more than twice the size of the state of California and which holds major oil, natural gas and mineral resources.

“These are technically sovereign waters of the United States,” Zukunft said.

Arctic safety concerns

Moreover, with the recession of Arctic sea ice, the increasing frequency of shipping transits of the region is raising the stakes on the possibility of an Arctic marine accident. This year, 1,000 passengers have booked on a marine tour in August and September, on a vessel with a crew of 600, scheduled to go north through the Bering Strait, pass around the north of Alaska and transit the Northwest Passage before returning to port in New York City, Zukunft said. This voyage will entail sailing through semi-charted waters. The ability of the Coast Guard to launch a rescue operation in the high Arctic is limited to non-existent, Zukunft commented.

“People look to the United States as a global leader, but where are we in the Arctic?” he asked.






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