When Will the U.S. Coast Guard Field New Icebreakers?

Although the United States fields the largest naval force in the world, the United States Coast Guard’s (USCG) fleet of icebreakers is comparatively modest, consisting on paper of two heavy and one medium icebreaking vessels. This number falls strikingly short of the USCG’s requirements to safeguard U.S. interests in the polar region, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which is responsible for the polar icebreaker recapitalization project within the U.S. government.  A June 2013 DHS document outlines the need for three heavy and three medium ships to fulfill all mission demands.

“Polar icebreakers enable the U.S. to maintain defense readiness in the Arctic and Antarctic regions; enforce treaties and other laws needed to safeguard both industry and the environment; provide ports, waterways and coastal security; and provide logistical support – including vessel escort – to facilitate the movement of goods and personnel necessary to support scientific research, commerce, national security activities and maritime safety,” according to the USCG website.

The “icebreaker gap” has become a more critical national security concern for the U.S. government in recent months due to Russia’s expanding Arctic presence—in June alone Moscow launched two new icebreakers—as well as increasing Chinese incursions into the region. Russia currently operates a fleet of approximately 41 icebreakers, some nuclear-powered, out of which 27 are ocean-going ships. China is expected to commission its second medium icebreaker this year. This has raised concerns among U.S. policymakers and defense officials given that the Arctic is home to 13 percent of world’s oil reserves, 30 percent of the world’s natural gas, and minerals found on the seafloor worth approximately a trillion U.S. dollars.

As of now, the USCG can only field one medium and one heavy icebreaker: The Polar Star is a heavy icebreaker capable of accessing all of the Arctic year-round, whereas the Healey is a medium icebreaker and is primarily used for supporting scientific research in the Arctic. Another heavy icebreaker, the Polar Sea, had a major engine breakdown in 2010 and was placed in commissioned inactive status in 2011. It has not been operational since. The Polar Star is expected to be decommissioned sometime between 2020 and 2023. Should the Polar Sea eventually return to active status and the Polar Star undergo a 25-year service extension, the USCG, at a minimum, would still require two new heavy icebreakers “to ensure national year-round access to the polar regions and to provide some self-rescue capability” in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, according to the USCG website. (The United States also operates one additional National Science Foundation icebreaker, which is substantially smaller than the USCG vessels.)

Following the USCG standard acquisition approach it would take about ten years to build a new icebreaker. Whether the USCG can expedite the acquisition process will depend on two factors: political will and a comprehensive acquisition strategy circumventing bureaucratic red tape.

For now, political commitment exists. In September 2015, the Obama White House published a fact sheet in which it pledged to help facilitate the acquisition of new icebreakers: “[T]he Administration will propose to accelerate acquisition of a replacement heavy icebreaker to 2020 from 2022, begin planning for construction of additional icebreakers, and call on Congress to work with the Administration to provide sufficient resources to fund these critical investments.” This, however, could change with a new incoming presidential administration.

The USCG polar icebreaker acquisition program held an industry day in March 2016, in which a tentative polar icebreaker acquisition schedule was discussed, although it needs to be reiterated that, as of now, no acquisition strategy has been selected. According to the USCG website, the “Coast Guard is in the Analyze/Select phase of this acquisition. This phase involves establishing operational requirements, evaluating the alternatives for achieving the requirements and assessing the merits of each alternative to select a solution.”

During the industry day, a notional acquisition schedule was discussed, including the release of an official request for proposals by the end of 2017, a contract award sometime between the last quarter of 2018 and the first three quarters of 2019, and a construction phase from the last quarter of 2019 to the end of 2020. The first ship could be commissioned in either 2024 or 2025. This rather ambitious schedule might not be implementable in the given timeframe for a number of reasons.

First, as I pointed out above, following the standard USCG acquisition approach, it would take ten years for the first new ship to be commissioned. Second, there are severe budgetary constraints. “The money ($1 billion) it would need to kick-start the development and construction of a new icebreaker is equivalent to the entire acquisitions budget of the Coast Guard for 2015, and it is highly unlikely that the service branch will receive additional funds in fiscal year 2016,” I wrote in January. One possible solution for this problem would be to split the acquisition costs between different federal agencies. The good news is that there appears to be bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress for the purchase of new icebreakers. The bad news is that given sequestration, the USCG must proceed in order of priority in its modernization efforts and icebreakers are not on top of the list: 93 percent of the acquisition budget is currently allocated toward purchasing another two ship classes, the so-called National Security and Fast Response Cutters.

Yet there still appears to be cause for slight optimism.

“What we’ve done in 2016 is we’re already hiring the acquisition staff … to do the groundwork of what it takes to generate the requirements and get a jump start on acquiring the new icebreakers. So we’re doing that, we’re also looking at commercial off the shelf designs – that in itself, that design work would accelerate the timeline by a couple years. What we do need is a bonafide appropriation to say that we are serious about acquiring new icebreakers. Our industrial complex and a number of shipyards have said we can build this in the United States, and I’m quite confident they can, but they are looking for a demonstration of commitment by our government to do so,” the head of the USCG, Admiral Paul Zukunft, said during the State of the Coast Guard address in February.

The $150 million fiscal year 2017 budget request would be the first major acquisition funding increase for the polar icebreaker recapitalization project. The money would be crucial for funding the design phase of the project and to stick to the notional acquisition schedule outlined above. It is the first of many steps needed to field an enlarged U.S. icebreaker fleet in the 2020s.