The U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaker program has faced significant challenges in recent years, with the increasing unreliability of its aging vessels impacting operations in the Arctic and Antarctic threatening to leave the U.S. behind as other countries vie for an edge in these critical regions.
The Coast Guard, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is responsible for operating the nation’s icebreaker fleet. It currently operates two active polar icebreakers as part of its Polar Security Cutter program (PSC): USCGC Polar Star and USCGC Healy. But Healy, a medium icebreaker commissioned in 1999 and primarily used for Arctic research and scientific missions, returned early from the Arctic earlier this year due to an engine room fire.
Polar Star, commissioned in 1976, is the only operational U.S. heavy icebreaker capable of breaking through thick Antarctic ice. It recently completed an extended dry-docking in California for a $17 million multiphase service life extension project. Additionally, USCGC Polar Sea, a sister ship to Polar Star commissioned in 1977, has been inactive since 2010 due to extensive mechanical failures and is unlikely to return to service.
While the Coast Guard has plans to rebuild the PSC program with three new polar cutters and additional medium icebreakers, it has not built a new heavy icebreaker since the 1970s. Although a contract for a new icebreaker was awarded in 2019, construction has yet to begin and cost overruns are challenging the effort to update the fleet.
In August, the Coast Guard announced it planned to acquire Aiviq, a U.S.-flagged ship built to serve as an oil-exploration support vessel. The service plans to spend up to $125 million to buy and outfit the ship to serve as a medium polar icebreaker, and it is anticipated it will reach initial operational capability in about two years. Currently, Aiviq is the only U.S.-built commercial vessel that meets necessary icebreaking standards. The Coast Guard plans to operate the ship from Juneau, Alaska.
Updating the icebreaker fleet is proving to be complex and costly. In 2019, the U.S. Coast Guard awarded a contract to build the future Polar Sentinel, the first in a new class of heavy polar icebreakers, to VT Halter Marine. Two years later, the Coast Guard ordered a second ship for the program.
In 2022, Bollinger Shipyards, a 78-year-old designer and builder of high-performance military ships and other oceangoing vessels, purchased Halter Marine and renamed it Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding. As of last October, construction has yet to begin on Polar Sentinel, and the Coast Guard informed Congress production would be delayed, and the cost will run about 20 percent higher than anticipated.
Neither the Coast Guard nor Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding returned multiple requests for updated information on the multibillion-dollar heavy icebreaker program.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates Polar Sentinel will cost $1.9 billion, with subsequent ships costing an average of $1.6 billion, for a total of $5.1 billion — 60 percent higher than the Coast Guard’s initial estimate of $3.2 billion.
The Coast Guard is hoping the shipyard will begin substantial construction on Polar Sentinel by the end of this year, with an estimated delivery date in 2029. The Coast Guard also expects to release a revised estimate of the cost of the three-ship PSC program by the end of this year.
As to what is causing the delays and higher costs, the CBO report states naval ship construction in the U.S. is operating in a challenging environment. Many shipyards have closed, nearly all are having difficulty hiring and retaining workers while a generation of senior workers are either retired or will soon be leaving the workforce. In addition, the cost of materials has risen sharply with inflation, and there are also fewer suppliers of parts and components for large-scale naval ships.
The importance of the U.S. icebreaker program is tied into the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which lists 11 specific missions the Coast Guard is required to perform. Polar icebreakers support nine of those missions, including marine safety, search and rescue, aids to navigation, fisheries law enforcement, marine environmental protection, ice operations, policing ports and waterways, conducting coastal security defense readiness and other law enforcement.
Icebreakers are necessary for resupplying the McMurdo Station, a U.S. research facility on Antarctica. And as climate change reduces the amount of ice in the Arctic in summer, more shipping traffic is passing through the region, with Russia and China seeking to exploit its natural resources.
With limited icebreaking capacity, the ability for the U.S. to support research is compromised. A shortage of icebreakers is leaving the U.S. behind other countries, including Russia, which operates dozens of them, including nuclear-powered ships.
In response to the issue, the U.S. has entered into an agreement called the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort or ICE Pact, with Finland and Canada, to collaborate on building icebreakers. Davie, a Quebec-based shipbuilder designing and building icebreakers for the Canadian government, announced that it will be among the first private sector contributors to the ICE Pact.
The Coast Guard is slated to update Congress on the program by the end of the year.