The Ship Model Forum

[url=https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/03/29/coast-guards-138-billion-budget-request-includes-commercial-icebreaker.html]Military.com[/url]

[quote][b][size=200]Coast Guard's $13.8 Billion Budget Request Includes a Commercial Icebreaker[/size][/b]

29 Mar 2022
Military.com | By Patricia Kime
Still years from the delivery of the first of three planned polar security icebreakers, the Coast Guard has asked Congress for the funds to buy a commercial icebreaker so that the service can continue operations in the polar regions.

The Coast Guard's proposed fiscal 2023 $13.8 billion budget request includes $125 million for a commercially available polar icebreaker, along with modifications for it to support Coast Guard operations.

According to Coast Guard budget documents released Monday, the purchase would represent "an effective strategy to increase the near-term presence in the Arctic" until the new polar security cutter fleet is operational.

Read Next: Troops Slated for Largest Pay Raise in 20 Years Under Pentagon Budget but Inflation Looms

"This vessel will provide a platform capable of projecting U.S. sovereignty and influence while conducting Coast Guard statutory missions in the high latitudes," Coast Guard officials wrote in the proposal.


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Emphasis on "only" :

[url=https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/11/12/after-pandemic-hiatus-americas-only-coast-guard-icebreaker-returning-antarctica.html]Military.com[/url]

[quote][b][size=200]After Pandemic Hiatus, America's Only Heavy Coast Guard Icebreaker Returning to Antarctica[/size][/b]
12 Nov 2021
Military.com | By Patricia Kime

The nation's sole heavy icebreaker will leave for Antarctica on Saturday, returning to the region after a break for the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The Coast Guard cutter Polar Star, homeported in Seattle, Washington, will support Operation Deep Freeze -- the annual effort to reach and resupply U.S. scientists at McMurdo Station on Ross Island in Antarctica.

The four-month mission was called off last year out of health and safety concerns during the coronavirus crisis.
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[url=https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/12/15/congress-authorizes-new-arctic-icebreakers-coast-guard.html]Associated Press/Military.com[/url]

[quote][b][size=200]Congress Authorizes New Arctic Icebreakers for Coast Guard[/size][/b]
15 Dec 2020
The Associated Press | By The Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Congress has passed a bill authorizing the addition of Coast Guard Polar Security Cutters for use as icebreakers, and an Alaska senator said the Trump administration is considering leasing an icebreaker owned by a Republican donor.
The Coast Guard has two icebreakers, but only one is operating following an August fire that damaged the USS Healy. Ongoing construction work on a new icebreaker is not expected to be finished until 2024.

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Article about last years problems of [i]Polar Star[/i] (including flooding of the engine room):
[url]https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2020/08/uscgcs-polar-stars-fy2020-dry-dock/[/url]

and a recent fire and engine loss of [i]Healy[/i]:
[url]https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2020/08/uscg-cutter-healy-suffers-fire-propulsion-failure-en-route-to-arctic/[/url]
[url]https://news.usni.org/2020/08/25/coast-guard-icebreaker-healy-suffers-fire-on-arctic-mission-all-arctic-operations-cancelled[/url]

An excerpt from the updated version of the report above:

[url=https://news.usni.org/2020/08/05/report-to-congress-on-coast-guard-polar-security-cutter-8]US Naval Institute[/url]

[quote][b][size=200]Report to Congress on Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter[/size][/b]
August 5, 2020 9:48 AM

The following is the July 29, 2020 Congressional Research Service report, Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (Polar Icebreaker) Program: Background and Issues for Congress.
From the report

The Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (PSC) program is a program to acquire three new PSCs (i.e., heavy polar icebreakers), to be followed years from now by the acquisition of up to three new medium polar icebreakers. The PSC program has received a total of $1,169.6 million (i.e., about $1.2 billion) in procurement funding through FY2020, including $135 million in FY2020, which was $100 million more than the $35 million that the Coast Guard had requested for FY2020. With the funding it has received through FY2020, the first PSC is now fully funded and the second PSC has received initial funding.

The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2021 budget requests $555 million in procurement funding for the PSC program. It also proposes a rescission of $70 million in FY2020 funding that Congress had provided for the procurement of long lead time materials (LLTM) for a 12th National Security Cutter (NSC), with the intent of reprogramming that funding to the PSC program. The Coast Guard states that its proposed FY2021 budget, if approved by Congress, would fully fund the second PSC.

The Coast Guard estimates the total procurement costs of the three PSCs as $1,039 million (i.e., about $1.0 billion) for the first ship, $792 million for the second ship, and $788 million for the third ship, for a combined estimated cost of $2,619 million (i.e., about $2.6 billion). Within those figures, the shipbuilder’s portion of the total procurement cost is $746 million for the first ship, $544 million for the second ship, and $535 million for the third ship, for a combined estimated shipbuilder’s cost of $1,825 million (i.e., about $1.8 billion).

On April 23, 2019, the Coast Guard-Navy Integrated Program Office for the PSC program awarded a $745.9 million fixed-price, incentive-firm contract for the detail design and construction (DD&C) of the first PSC to VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula, MS, a shipyard owned by Singapore Technologies (ST) Engineering. VT Halter was the leader of one of three industry teams that competed for the DD&C contract. The first PSC is scheduled to begin construction in 2021 and be delivered in 2024, though the DD&C contract includes financial incentives for earlier delivery.

The DD&C contract includes options for building the second and third PSCs. If these options are exercised, the total value of the contract would increase to $1,942.8 million (i.e., about $1.9 billion). The figures of $745.9 million and $1,942.8 million cover only the shipbuilder’s costs; they do not include the cost of government-furnished equipment (GFE), which is equipment for the ships that the government purchases and then provides to the shipbuilder for incorporation into the ship, or government program-management costs.

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. Polar Sea, however, suffered an engine casualty in June 2010 and has been nonoperational 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. The Coast Guard plans to extend the service life of Polar Star until the delivery of at least the second PSC. The Coast Guard is using Polar Sea as a source of spare parts for keeping Polar Star operational.

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A link including the full report to the Congress:

[url]https://news.usni.org/2020/06/16/report-to-congress-on-coast-guard-polar-security-cutter-7?utm_source=USNI+News&utm_campaign=8d8d2f9479-USNI_NEWS_WEEKLY&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_0dd4a1450b-8d8d2f9479-234839210&mc_cid=8d8d2f9479&mc_eid=defe82c004[/url]

[url=https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2020/06/09/trump-memo-demands-new-fleet-of-arctic-icebreakers-to-be-ready-by-2029/]Defense News[/url]

[quote][b][size=200]Trump memo demands new fleet of Arctic icebreakers be ready by 2029[/size][/b]
By: David B. Larter , Joe Gould , and Aaron Mehta   1 day ago
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Trump ordered a review of the country’s requirements for icebreaking capabilities in the Arctic and Antarctic regions, with the goal of getting a fleet in place by 2029, according to a memo released Tuesday.

The memo was directed at the Defense, State, Commerce and Homeland Security departments, as well as the Office of Management and Budget.

Much of it directs work already in progress — including building a fleet of at least three heavy icebreakers — but says the remaining ships not under contract should be reviewed for what can be done to maximize their utility in the frozen poles.

The memo calls for “an assessment of expanded operational capabilities, with estimated associated costs, for both heavy and medium [polar security cutters] not yet contracted for, specifically including the maximum use of any such PSC with respect to its ability to support national security objectives.” That assessment is due in 60 days.

Trump’s directive to assess the current plan to field an Arctic maritime capability over the next decade is the latest sign that the administration is increasingly concerned about Russian and Chinese activity in the northern region, which could threaten America’s interests in crucial chokepoints, such as the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom Gap.
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Related:

[url=https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/03/12/coast-guard-has-billions-overdue-maintenance-and-lawmakers-are-concerned.html]Military.com[/url]

[quote][b][size=200]The Coast Guard Has Billions in Overdue Maintenance, and Lawmakers Are Concerned[/size][/b]
12 Mar 2020
Military.com | By Dorothy Mills-Gregg

After a "dead on arrival" Coast Guard budget request last year, the president's proposed fiscal 2021 budget for the service had a better reception from lawmakers Tuesday.

However, House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security Chairwoman Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-California, told Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz that she is concerned the request does not include enough to tackle the service's maintenance backlog.
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[b][u]
"It really concerns me that, despite the nearly $2 billion backlog of crumbling shore infrastructure, which you just described, 40% of which is over -- my understanding -- 50 years or older, that the president's budget request proposes deep cuts to last year's enacted level for all the lines that fund infrastructure," she said.[/u][/b]

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[/quote]

Full article at LA Times website behind paywall at link below. Just shared this excerpt to show how desperate the situation is for those maintaining her, which was similar to the situation for the Royal Canadian Navy's former remaining 2 supply ships of the [i]Protecteur [/i]class before they were reluctantly retired in 2015-16.

[url=https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-08-02/antarctica-polar-star-icebreaker?utm_source=pocket-newtab&fbclid=IwAR0sYbs5m74TFCYTU5pX-4dTTwGs8su0c-ty2bkCCCyyCgijJS-RwOzQqxo]Los Angeles Times[/url]

[quote] [b][size=200]Meet the neglected 43-year-old stepchild of the U.S. military-industrial complex[/size][/b]
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The United States spends $2 billion a day on the most advanced military ever assembled, with more aircraft carriers, fighter planes and nuclear submarines than any other nation. The Pentagon intends to develop a space fleet of orbiting lasers, missile sensors and satellites.
[b]Then there is the Polar Star.
[u] The only U.S. ship capable of bludgeoning through heavy ice, it is the neglected 43-year-old stepchild of the U.S. military-industrial complex.
After decades of abuse, the vessel lists to port, but its sewer pipes drain to starboard, jamming and overflowing toilets. Rust coats decks, hatches and ladders. Lead paint peels from walls marked with warnings of asbestos.[/u]
The only U.S. icebreaker that can break through heavy ice is the neglected stepchild of the U.S. military industrial complex. The Coast Guard’s Polar Star resupplies the U.S. Antarctic Research Station and limps home every year.
While Russia will soon have more than 50 icebreakers, the fire-engine-red ship lumbers on as a Cold War relic.
[u]Crew members scour EBay for discontinued replacement parts. A petty officer who used a surfboard repair kit to fix a generator, saving the ship from encroaching ice, received an award from the Coast Guard commandant.
Each time the ship makes the 11,500-mile journey to Antarctica, it falls apart. Turbines quit. Seals rupture. Resistors fail. Then it limps home for months of repairs[/u].[/b]
The torrent that inundated the galley Dec. 1 destroyed the top oven, subjecting the crew to cold cuts for a week while a $50,000 replacement was flown to Honolulu, the ship’s next port. Machinery that desalinates water also broke.
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I know some people are confused over the lack of detail on the new ice breaker on the Scientific Research space. I would say the aforementioned is built into the design of said Icebreaker. As was the same with the Polar Class. As for the Wind Class the space made available through Space re-designation. All be it there was little room for it.


Regards

[url=https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-will-be-home-port-for-new-class-of-icebreakers/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article_inset_1.1&fbclid=IwAR1pKqGR2rVri0I0ga4PqKk3FAhGNVOBb_HyXlagsnTlbBq1cR3tmUa2LO8]Seattle Times[/url]

[quote][b][size=200] Seattle will be home port for new class of icebreakers[/size][/b]
June 17, 2019 at 5:55 pm Updated June 18, 2019 at 3:28 pm
Seattle will continue to be the home port for the Coast Guard’s heavy icebreakers in the next decade as shipyards build a new class of “Polar Security” cutters.

“The Pacific Northwest has been the home of our icebreaking fleet since 1976, and I am confident that the Seattle area will continue to carry out our critical operations in the polar regions,” Adm. Karl Schultz, U.S. Coast Guard commandant, wrote in a statement released Monday announcing the decision.

The first of the new class of vessels is projected to be delivered from the VT Halter Marine shipyard in Mississippi by 2024, and the contract award includes options to build two more. The overall costs for the three vessels would be about $2.95 billion, including shipyard contracts and other expenses, according to a Congressional Research Service report.

The Coast Guard statement said the new U.S. heavy icebreakers “will support the United States’ ability to conduct national missions, respond to critical events, and project American presence in the high latitudes.”

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The ice breaker for the US Coast Guard has been a long road since the Wind Class was taken out of service. As for the Polar Class when the request was put forward for funding for a new ice breaker the US Coast Guard was required to a survey of the Polar Sea to see the total cost of bringing that ship up to operationally status, of the course the cost more than ship the ship was worth. Age was considered in the request for a new ice breaker.

It's about time for a new Breaker, When I retired from the US Coast Guard in 1996 the polar class breakers were "really" showing their age.

Regards

Prior to the Polar class, all the ocean going USCG/USN ice breakers were designed and built with heavy armaments (the Wind class). I suspect that the Arctic region will become a "contested" region as the icecap shrinks. Hence, the need for armaments.

That is a nice looking design.

Interesting! The design looks very cool! It is good that the old ships, especially Polar Star, will be replaced.

But I am confused about the described tasks. Most icebreakers are used either for icebreaking (to enable other ships to reach their destination) or for research. The USCG icebreakers were mainly used for research or to help that research stations can be supplied. They were equipped for research. USCGC Healy is mainly used to support scientific research. I found no reference that the new ships are equipped to support science or that they should support science - but instead that they should be prepared to be armed!? Somebody appears to have the wrong priorities, perhaps because they generate real facts. Hope that this is wrong and that the article is based on a idiotic strategy to justify the building of these ships, not on the characteristics the ships will have.

https://news.usni.org/2019/04/23/vt-halter-marine-to-build-new-coast-guard-icebreaker

The construction contract was awarded yesterday to VT Halter Marine. This is the latest rendering:
[img]https://i.imgur.com/LXRIrnk.png[/img]

Hopefully someone's not playing an April Fool's prank on the USCG:

[url=https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/04/01/contract-new-coast-guard-icebreaker-could-be-awarded-month.html]Military.com[/url]

[quote][b][size=200]Contract for New Coast Guard Icebreaker Could Be Awarded this Month[/size][/b]
1 Apr 2019
Military.com | By Richard Sisk

The estimated cost of a new new Coast Guard icebreaker is significant, but the need is urgent given the state of the only heavy icebreaker currently in service, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz said last week.

"This is going to be a world-class Polar icebreaker; high horsepower, the ability to drive through, you know, six, seven feet of ice at three knots continuous," Schultz said March 28 in testimony before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on homeland security.

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[/quote]

They are working really hard on increasing the number of the available ships!? Not even completely over-aged ships there is any priority to built a replacement...

How stripped the icebreaker from the budget? I guess Trump's administration?

[url=https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/12/14/icebreaker-or-border-wall-house-action-jeopardizes-coast-guard-ship-funding.html]Military.com[/url]

[quote] [b][size=200] Icebreaker Or Border Wall? House Action Jeopardizes Coast Guard Ship Funding [/size][/b]
14 Dec 2018
Military.com | By Richard Sisk
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz said Friday he is ready to work with Congress to get back money for a new icebreaker that was stripped from the service’s proposed budget allocation to pay for the border wall.
"I'm going to stick by my guns and say I'm guardedly optimistic" that the $750 million for the icebreaker, which was removed from the Coast Guard’s budget proposal by the House, could be restored, Schultz said at a Navy League breakfast.
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