Is that title an unintentional pun? Whatever...
It's been rumored that President Biden wanted to conduct a freedom of navigation exercise across the Northern Sea over Russia but was informed that it wasn't within US capabilities to do so reliably and in fact, if conducted, could've resulted in a US Icebreaker 'breakdown' and requiring Russia to tow them through the rest of the trip.
On paper the United States government has three icebreakers (plus one, the Mackinaw, deployed solely to the Great Lakes), but one, the Polar Sea has been out of commission for over a decade after an accident and the other, the Healy, commissioned in 2000, is currently undergoing less serious repairs, leaving the Polar Star the only operating icebreaker for the US Coast Guard and it's a forty year old ship that was only expected to serve for thirty years. In comparison the Russians have around forty icebreaking ships and even the self-identified "Near Arctic" state of China has two in operation with a third nuclear powered one in the works.
Back in 2019, after a review conducted by the Trump Administration, a contract was awarded for the development and construction of several new 'Polar Security Cutters' for the Coast Guard. The Biden Administration recently prioritized an extra $170 million into the Polar Security Cutter program. It's expected that six Polar Security Cutters will be built with the first potentially being deployed in 2023, hopefully before anymore major breakdowns in the current tiny Icebreaking fleet.
Anyone have any thoughts on the Worlds' Current Icebreaker situation?
It's been rumored that President Biden wanted to conduct a freedom of navigation exercise across the Northern Sea over Russia but was informed that it wasn't within US capabilities to do so reliably and in fact, if conducted, could've resulted in a US Icebreaker 'breakdown' and requiring Russia to tow them through the rest of the trip.
On paper the United States government has three icebreakers (plus one, the Mackinaw, deployed solely to the Great Lakes), but one, the Polar Sea has been out of commission for over a decade after an accident and the other, the Healy, commissioned in 2000, is currently undergoing less serious repairs, leaving the Polar Star the only operating icebreaker for the US Coast Guard and it's a forty year old ship that was only expected to serve for thirty years. In comparison the Russians have around forty icebreaking ships and even the self-identified "Near Arctic" state of China has two in operation with a third nuclear powered one in the works.
Back in 2019, after a review conducted by the Trump Administration, a contract was awarded for the development and construction of several new 'Polar Security Cutters' for the Coast Guard. The Biden Administration recently prioritized an extra $170 million into the Polar Security Cutter program. It's expected that six Polar Security Cutters will be built with the first potentially being deployed in 2023, hopefully before anymore major breakdowns in the current tiny Icebreaking fleet.
US Needs Icebreakers to Keep Up With China and Russia in Arctic
Supplying the Coast Guard with six icebreaker ships will enable it to meet the growing demands from China and Russia in the Arctic region.
www.dailysignal.com
Anyone have any thoughts on the Worlds' Current Icebreaker situation?