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GAO reviews USCG icebreaker plans
Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has reviewed plans by the U.S. Coast Guard for its icebreaker fleet capability and told Congress in a Sept. 25 report that it has recommended that the Coast Guard complete a comprehensive cost estimate for limited life extension of the heavy icebreaker Polar Star before committing to bridging a potential capability gap.
While the Coast Guard is responsible for providing polar icebreaking capability for the United States, GAO said in a presentation to Congress earlier this year that the Department of Defense reported to Congress in December “that it had no specific defense requirement for icebreaking capability because Navy Arctic requirements are met by undersea and air assets which can provide year-round presence.”
GAO said one of the Coast Guard’s required functions is to maintain icebreaking facilities on the high seas and on U.S. jurisdictional waters, and pursuant to international agreements in waters not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, specifically the Antarctic.
Two Coast Guard icebreakers are active, the heavy icebreaker Polar Star, nearing the end of its expected service life, and the medium icebreaker Healy.
The Coast Guard is seeking to recapitalize its polar icebreaking fleet with three new heavy polar icebreakers, allowing it to maintain polar icebreaking capability to access the Arctic and Antarctic, GAO said.
Polar icebreaking requests GAO said the Coast Guard has not been able to address all polar icebreaking requests since 2010, fulfilling 25 of 32 (78 percent) of U.S. government agency requests from fiscal year 2010 through 2016.
The Coast Guard was unable to fulfill National Science Foundation requests for resupply of the McMurdo Station in Antarctica in fiscal years 2010-13 as its heavy polar icebreakers were undergoing maintenance, and NSF leased commercial polar icebreakers.
The Coast Guard’s other heavy polar icebreaker, the Polar Sun, has been inactive since 2010.
GAO said the only mission the Polar Star has been able to complete since 2014, “due to its extensive annual post-operation maintenance requirements,” is the annual McMurdo resupply.
Replacement plan The Coast Guard “is seeking to recapitalize its polar icebreaking fleet through the acquisition of three new heavy polar icebreakers,” GAO said.
In advancing its acquisition program the Coast Guard has partnered with the Navy and engaged the shipbuilding industry, but there are risks in the timeline it has set for delivery, GAO said, with the first of three icebreakers now scheduled for delivery in 2023, three years sooner than originally planned.
There are acquisition planning documents which must be completed and approved by the end of fiscal year 2017 (Sept. 30), but should those documents not be approved on schedule, it may impact release of the request for proposals for detail design and construction in mid-fiscal year 2018, which may delay contract award scheduled for fiscal year 2019.
Limited life extension GAO said it has recommended to the Coast Guard completion of a comprehensive cost estimate for a limited service life extension of the Polar Star before committing to that approach to bridge the potential capability gap, and said the Coast Guard concurred.
The Polar Star’s useful service life is projected to end between fiscal years 2020 and 2023, GAO said, creating a potential gap of up to three years before the first of the new heavy icebreakers is scheduled for delivery, to be covered by a limited life extension of the Polar Star. NSF officials told GAO that if a Coast Guard heavy icebreaker was unavailable for the McMurdo resupply, the plan would be to again lease a commercial icebreaker, as NSF did in 2010-13.
Costs of new heavy icebreakers are estimated at about $1 billion each, with the Coast Guard’s new accelerated acquisition schedule showing the first delivered in late fiscal year 2023.
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