“These icebreakers are examples of something that we need to get online now.  They can’t wait.  And I’m looking forward to trying to work with Congress to make that happen,” Obama concluded.

Not only Russia has more icebreakers than the United States. Virtually every other nation bordering the Arctic has a much larger icebreaker fleet than the U.S. Even China has one converted icebreaker, which has made three Arctic cruises, and another building, and China doesn’t border the Arctic. In what was clearly not a coincidence, a Chinese task force of five naval ships has been cruising in the Bering Sea this week while Obama was in Alaska.

U.S. polar icebreakers conduct and support scientific research in the Arctic and Antarctic; help maintain a U.S. presence in the nation’s Arctic territorial waters to defend U.S. sovereignty in the region as well as defend U.S. economic interests in polar regions, including waters that are within the U.S. exclusive economic zone (EEZ) north of Alaska; monitor Arctic sea traffic including ships bound for the United States; and conduct other typical Coast Guard missions in Arctic waters, including U.S. territorial waters north of Alaska, according to the Coast Guard.

“In February 2015, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a process to evaluate the feasibility of deepening and extend[ing] Nome’s harbor capabilities. Such a project could potentially enhance the region’s ability to shelter ships from the Arctic weather and serve as a safe standby location for vessels involved in operations farther north.”

Another key problem for the U.S. in expanding Arctic operations has been the absence of a deep-water port on the North Slope of Alaska, and so the president also announced plans to investigate deepening and expanding the harbor at Nome, Alaska.

“The growth of human activity in the Arctic region will require highly engaged stewardship to maintain the open seas necessary for global commerce and scientific research, allow for search and rescue activities, and provide for regional peace and stability,” states an accompanying White House press release. “Accordingly, meeting these challenges requires the United States to develop and maintain capacity for year-round access to greater expanses within polar regions.”

“Additionally, north of Dutch Harbor, located on the Aleutian Chain, there are no deep-water harbors in the U.S. Arctic capable of providing shelter to vessels operating in, or transiting through, the U.S. Arctic region,” the press release reads. “In February 2015, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a process to evaluate the feasibility of deepening and extend[ing] Nome’s harbor capabilities. Such a project could potentially enhance the region’s ability to shelter ships from the Arctic weather and serve as a safe standby location for vessels involved in operations farther north.”

Nome was one of two locations Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul F. Zukunft mentioned as having potential for Coast Guard basing during an exclusive interview conducted with Coast Guard Outlook last year, but added that the problem of supplying such a port would be a challenge. “We did a series of studies of where would you place a deep-water port in the Arctic, and we identified two locations – one in Nome, and the other in Port Clarence,” Zukunft said. “Now, the Coast Guard is not in the business of building deep-water ports, but we’re going through the analytics of where you might put that. The other big logistic challenge beyond having a deep-water port is: What’s the other intermodal transportation piece, namely road, to ultimately service a deep-water port?”

The effort to accelerate the building of a new icebreaker is clearly encouraging, however.

“The president’s announcement demonstrates that the United States is an Arctic nation and affirms the Coast Guard’s role in providing assured access to the Polar Regions,” Zukunft said in a statement issued by the Coast Guard. “We look forward to working with the administration, Congress, and the many other Arctic stakeholders to ensure these platforms meet our national security objectives well into the 21st century.”

In addition, the president proposes new surveying of the Arctic through mapping and charting efforts in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas, as maps and charts for whose newly open waters are outdated or nonexistent because of the impossibility of conducting such surveys when the region was ice-covered. The Coast Guard and NOAA are to survey a transit route through the Aleutians and Bering Strait, and other agencies will undertake more detailed coastline mapping.