Currently, the Coast Guard has three polar icebreakers: Polar Star (WAGB-10), Polar Sea (WAGB-11) and Healy (WAGB-20). These vessels are equipped with research equipment, sensors and the capability to break through at least 4.5 feet of ice continually at a speed of three knots. All three ships are homeported in Seattle, WA. Polar Star and Polar Sea were built in the mid-1970s, while Healy came on line in 2000.* *
Though these ships are operated and owned by the Coast Guard, funding for operations comes from the National Science Foundation, which conducts polar research on the ships.
“We have the most powerful, conventionally powered icebreakers in the world,” Allen said. “As far as being able to break ice this is the standard, but the equipment is old, the engines are old. You’re almost at a single point of failure in heavy-duty icebreaking.”
The melting of the polar icecaps is already bringing about increased vessel traffic in the northern latitudes, the commandant noted, something that could lead to more search and rescue and oil spill response missions in the future.
“This whole thing cries for a policy discussion, a way forward to rationalize how the funding is being done because right now if it’s not science, we cannot deploy an icebreaker up into the Arctic for extended presence there and that's what we need to look at," Allen argued.
The commandant of the Coast Guard is worried about the melting of the ice caps in the Arctic and the Antarctic because he feels the service's fleet of icebreaking ships -- all three of 'em -- is sorely in need of upgrade, as Inside the Navy reports today.
