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Commandant: Ice breakers a top priority

The top priorities for the Coast Guard in the Arctic region are to get the Polar Star icebreaker back out to sea and obtain funding for two new icebreakers, said the Coast Guard’s top official.

Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen had everyone’s ears when he spoke Tuesday morning at the Naval Academy on the Coast Guard’s emerging role in the Arctic.

Allen told the audience — made up mostly of government officials — that he needs $30 million to finish repairs on the Polar Star, one of only two Polar-class icebreakers in the fleet.

“Our two polar ‘breakers’ are our big challenge right now,” Allen said.

He said both are more than 30 years old. “We need to replace them.”

He said potential replacement is “a key decision that’s going to be taking place in the very near future.”

The Polar Sea’s life expectancy was extended to 2014 by a major overhaul in 2006. The Polar Star has been laid up since 2006.

Allen estimates it would cost $900 million to build a new icebreaker. An early draft of the proposed stimulus bill included $87.5 million for icebreakers, but Congress chopped the proposal before passing the bill.

Allen said he wants the base operating funds — which amount to $54 million annually — for the polar icebreakers returned to the Coast Guard budget. The funds have been appropriated to the National Science Foundation because the patrols were viewed more as a scientific venture than a national security imperative.

“We’re working with that right now with the [Obama] administration,” Allen said.

As climate change continues to decrease ice cover, the Coast Guard has its work cut out for it in addressing how to handle increased shipping traffic, commercial fishing, eco-tourism, and drilling for natural gas and oil, Allen said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report at the end of January that said the Coast Guard is not prepared to respond to maritime incidents in the Arctic.

That is what keeps him up at night, Allen said.

His comments came at the Third Symposium on the Impacts of an Ice-Diminishing Arctic on Naval & Maritime Operations, which runs from Tuesday through Thursday. The event is being hosted by the U.S. National Ice Center and the U.S. Arctic Research Commission.