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Coast Guard gets $30M to overhaul icebreaker

The Coast Guard is one step closer to having all three of its Polar icebreakers in operational status for the first time since 2006, but the service may not have enough money to bring one of the aging cutters out of drydock.

The 32-year-old Seattle-based Polar Star is the Coast Guard’s oldest heavy icebreaking cutter and has been laid up since July 1, 2006.

Coast Guard officials could not say for certain if the $30.3 million included in the fiscal 2009 Homeland Security Department budget would be enough to get the aging cutter back into operational status.

But in July, Commandant Adm. Thad Allen told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee it would take 12 to 18 months’ lead time and an estimated $60 million for a “significant overhaul” of the Polar Star, which had an expected 30-year lifecycle.

A recently updated report from the Congressional Research Service said it would cost between $800 million and $925 million for a new icebreaker, roughly $400 million per ship to keep the Polar Sea and Polar Star operational for another 25 years, or $56.6 million to provide the proper maintenance and repair work to reactivate the Polar Star and extend its service life by seven to 10 years.

In the meantime, it costs about $3 million a year to keep the vessel in caretaker status, and because it hasn’t moved from the dock for several years, Allen said in July that he was worried about corrosion.

The Coast Guard’s Polar icebreaking fleet consists of the cutters Healy, Polar Sea and Polar Star. The Healy — commissioned in 2000 — is the newest of the ships and is primarily designed for Arctic scientific research. The Polar Star and Polar Sea, both commissioned in the 1970s, are well past their prime. The Polar Sea’s life expectancy was extended to 2014 thanks to a major overhaul in 2006.

Healy, which participated in several scientific missions in the Arctic over the summer, arrived Wednesday at Pier 36 in Seattle after a four-month deployment to the Arctic and is expected to undergo maintenance before next summer’s scientific missions.

Healy’s missions this summer did bring the U.S. one step closer to defining the new Arctic territory. In addition to Healy’s deployments, the California-based cutter Hamilton embarked on an historic 4,000-nautical mile journey through the Arctic as the “final piece of the puzzle,” which the Coast Guard needed to put together a comprehensive report outlining not only what its new responsibilities in that area include, but also what equipment will be necessary to complete the mission. The Hamilton was the Coast Guard’s first non-icebreaking vessel to travel the Arctic waters.

The report is expected to be released “in the near future,” although an exact date still is not known, said Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Russell, Allen’s spokesman.

Allen has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the Arctic, saying the melting of the ice caps, an increase in oil exploration and additional shipping and cruise routes in the polar region are taxing the fleet, which is now responsible for patrolling areas that used to be ice.

But with only two aging, operational icebreakers in service, the U.S. is falling behind other nations vying for the same territory. Russia, which symbolically claimed the Arctic seafloor in August 2007 when it planted a flag beneath the ice caps, already has a fleet of 20 icebreakers and is building a new fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers.

Leading Senate Democrats introduced a $56.2 billion economic recovery package that included $925 million for a new polar icebreaker in September, but Senate Republicans quickly shot the bill down.

At this point there is no funding for a new heavy icebreaker, Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Chris O’Neil said. The CRS report said it would take at least eight to 10 years for the first replacement polar icebreaker to enter service.