Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization: Background and Issues for Congress

Abstract

The Coast Guards proposed FY2017 budget requests $150 million in acquisition funding for a new polar icebreaker that the Coast Guard wants to begin building in FY2020. The Coast Guards FY2017-FY2021 five-year Capital Investment Plan (CIP) includes a total of $780 million in acquisition funding for a new polar icebreaker, including the $150 million requested for FY2017, $200 million projected for FY2019 and FY2020, and $430 million projected for FY2021. The total acquisition cost of the ship has not been officially estimated but might be roughly $1 billion, including design costs. The project to acquire a new polar icebreaker was initiated in the Coast Guards FY2013 budget submission. The project has received about $15.6 million in acquisition funding through FY2016. The $150 million requested for FY2017 is the first major increment of acquisition funding requested for the ship, and would fund planning design activities required to begin production of the ship in FY2020. Coast Guard polar icebreakers perform a variety of missions supporting U.S. interests in polar regions. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Mission Need Statement (MNS) approved in June 2013 states that current requirements and future projections ... indicate the Coast Guard will need to expand its icebreaking capacity, potentially requiring a fleet of up to six icebreakers (3 heavy and 3 medium) to adequately meet mission demands in the high latitudes.... The operational U.S. polar icebreaking fleet currently consists of one heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Star, and one medium polar icebreaker, Healy. In addition to Polar Star, the Coast Guard has a second heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Sea. This ship suffered an engine casualty in June 2010 and has been non-operational since then. Polar Star and Polar Sea entered service in 1976 and 1978, respectively, and are now well beyond their originally intended 30-year service lives.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 27, 2016
Accession Number
AD1013812

Entities

People

  • Ronald O'Rourke

Organizations

  • Congressional Research Service

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Arctic Regions
  • Coast Guard
  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Employment
  • Environmental Protection
  • High Latitudes
  • Homeland Security
  • Law
  • Marine Transportation
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Polar Regions
  • Procurement
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Maritime Security/Maritime Homeland Security
  • Public Financial Management and Budgeting