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NAS reports on US icebreaker needs Tells Homeland Security that the country should construct four polar icebreakers to meet national obligations in polar regions Alan Bailey Petroleum News
In response to a mandate in the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2015 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has delivered to the secretary of Homeland Security an assessment of strategies for minimizing the federal government costs incurred to procure and operate heavy polar icebreakers. Based on an investigation by a committee of experts in ship design and construction, and in polar vessels and icebreakers, the NAS report recommends U.S. construction of four new heavy polar icebreakers, with an acquisition strategy that ensures best value for the use of public funds.
In 2010 the U.S. Coast Guard identified the need for three heavy and three medium polar icebreakers, but this new report suggests that four heavy icebreakers would be a more cost effective option.
Insufficient capability The NAS report says that the United States currently has insufficient icebreaker capability to protect its interests, implement its policies, execute its laws and meet its obligations in the Arctic and Antarctic. The U.S. Coast Guard currently only has one operational heavy polar icebreaker, the Polar Star, a vessel build in 1976 and now well past the end of its design life.
“The nation is ill-equipped to protect its interests and maintain leadership in these (polar) regions and has fallen behind other Arctic nations, which have mobilized to expand their access to ice-covered regions,” the report says.
Four heavy icebreakers The report recommends that Congress should remedy the situation by funding the construction of four heavy polar icebreakers that would be owned and operated by the U.S. Coast Guard. To minimize costs, the icebreakers should all be built to the same design. This consistent approach to design and construction would mean that the fourth of the heavy icebreakers could be build more cheaply than could a smaller lead ship for a fleet of medium-sized icebreakers. And a fleet of four heavy icebreakers could fulfill mission needs at less cost than the mixed fleet of up to six vessels that Homeland Security has been considering, the report says.
The report also says that, while the expert committee viewed the Coast Guard’s own estimates for the cost of construction of heavy icebreakers to be reasonable, the agency had underestimated the cost of acquiring medium icebreakers. The committee estimates the order-of-magnitude cost of the first heavy icebreaker to be $983 million, with the subsequent heavy icebreakers perhaps costing $791 million each. The vessels would be 433 feet in length, with a beam of 89 feet.
Having vessels of common design will also minimize vessel maintenance and operating costs, the report comments.
The report suggests that chartering rather than owning the icebreakers is not viable because of the limited availability of polar icebreakers on the open market and would only be practical for specific short-term missions.
Cost minimization strategies In commissioning the construction of the new icebreakers the Coast Guard should use a block buy rather than piecemeal contracting strategy, coupled with a fixed price incentive for the contract, the report says. And vessel life cycle costs should be included in the evaluation criteria for construction proposals. The acquisition of the vessels should also incorporate other factors such as technology transfer from designers and builders with recent experience, the maximum use of off-the-shelf equipment, and the reduction of any “buy American” provisions to enable the use of the most appropriate equipment available.
Given the use of efficient modern technologies and hull forms in new icebreakers, and given the age-related, high maintenance costs of the Polar Star, the essential operating costs of the new icebreakers should be lower than those of the Polar Star, the report says. However, comparisons of operating costs need to take into account potential costs associated with the complexities of new capabilities of modern vessels, with the cost of those capabilities evaluated against the benefits that the capabilities bring.
The report recommends that at least one of the new icebreakers should be capable of supporting scientific missions, including built-in features that could accommodate science personnel and technologies.
Pending the commissioning of at least two new icebreakers, the Coast Guard should keep the Polar Star operational by means of an enhanced maintenance program, the report says. In fact, given the fact that the Polar Star may only have a further three to seven years of service life, the United States is currently at risk of entirely losing its heavy icebreaking capability, thus causing a critical capacity gap, the report comments.
Support from Alaska lawmakers Alaska’s congressional delegation has been taking an active interest in the U.S. icebreaker situation. In March Rep. Don Young participated in the introduction of legislation that would authorize the procurement of up to six new icebreakers, the three heavy and three medium icebreakers that Homeland Security has proposed. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has advocated for funding for a new polar icebreaker. And on June 29 Sen. Dan Sullivan announced that he had authored a provision for the procurement of up to six Coast Guard polar icebreakers as part of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act that had just passed out of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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