As the ice retreats, protecting living marine resources will grow in importance. “There will [be] more open and relatively warmer water, so fish stock will go north. So that mission will become more important for the Coast Guard in the region,” Riesterer said.
The Bering Sea fishery represents a significant, measurable percentage of the fish stocks that the United States takes in every year, by volume and by overall gross value. That’s why the Coast Guard already has a constant presence there.
“If fish stocks, and subsequently that fishing fleet, follow the fish northward, our support will potentially have to migrate with it,” Riesterer said. “But it could expand or stretch to a point where our one cutter there is not going to be able to respond to a SAR mission or conduct LMR [living marine resources] enforcement.”
Ecotourism has also picked up. Cruise ships are heading farther north, and in greater numbers.
“Right now we use a 1970s-era ship that goes down there, breaks a path in the ice, comes home, and goes back into dry dock for several months to keep it alive. It’s a single point of failure. We have no bench strength,” he said. “If that ship suffers a major casualty, the United States government has no capability to backfill.”
Looking to the far south, icebreakers are needed to break out McMurdo Ice Station in Antarctica and escort the resupply ships that support Operation Deep Freeze each year. “That mission’s not going away, either. We have a presence there all year round,” Riesterer said. “But they get one opportunity a year for somebody to cut a hole in the ice to get the resupply ships in.
A model icebreaker demonstrates its maneuverability during a test at the National Research Council of Canada’s facility in St. Johns, Newfoundland, on July 26, 2017. The test showcased the progress made on the testing and evaluation of design models for the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaker acquisition program, which is being supported by an international, multiagency team including engineers from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division. U.S. Navy photo by Steven Ouimette
“Right now we use a 1970s-era ship that goes down there, breaks a path in the ice, comes home, and goes back into dry dock for several months to keep it alive. It’s a single point of failure. We have no bench strength,” he said. “If that ship suffers a major casualty, the United States government has no capability to backfill.”
“This past March, we released a request for proposal as a full and open competition, and we are on track to award a detail design and construction contract in FY 2019,” said Coast Guard Acquisitions Directorate spokesman Brian Olexy. “That award will include options for the construction of up to three heavy polar security cutters. We’ll know more about the specific characteristics of the PSC when the detail design and construction contract is awarded.”
A September 2018 report by the Government Accountability Office said the program faces risk due to the lack of a mature design, an insufficient review of existing icebreaker technology, and that the cost and schedule are overly optimistic. But delaying the program has risks of its own because the ice breaking capability is desperately needed.
“Presence equals influence, we must be present,” said Commandant of the Coast Guard Adm. Karl L. Schultz. “We need six icebreakers – three of them need to be heavy, and we need one right now to be in the Arctic, because we need to be there.”