Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (Polar Icebreaker) Program: Background and Issues for
Congress
Summary
Required number of polar icebreakers. A 2023 Coast Guard fleet mix analysis concluded that
the service will require a total of eight to nine polar icebreakers, including four to five heavy
polar icebreakers and four to five medium polar icebreakers, to perform its polar (i.e., Arctic and
Antarctic) missions in coming years.
Current operational polar icebreaker fleet.
The operational U.S. polar icebreaking fleet currently consists of one heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Star, and one medium polar icebreaker, Healy. A second Coast Guard heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Sea. Polar Sea, suffered an engine casualty in June 2010 and has been nonoperational since then. Polar Star and Polar Sea entered service in 1976 and 1977, respectively, and are now well beyond their originally intended 30-year service lives. The Coast Guard plans to extend Polar Star’s service life until the delivery of at least the second Polar Security Cutter (PSC; see next paragraph).
Polar Security Cutter (PSC).
The Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (PSC) program aims to acquire four or five new PSCs (i.e., heavy polar icebreakers), to be followed at some later point by the acquisition of new Arctic Security Cutters (ASCs) (i.e., medium polar icebreakers).
The Coast Guard in 2021 estimated PSC procurement costs in then-year dollars as $1,297 million (i.e., about $1.3 billion) for the first ship, $921 million for the second ship, and $1,017 million (i.e., about $1.0 billion) for the third ship, for a combined estimated cost of $3,235 million (i.e., about $3.2 billion). The PSC program has received a total of about $1,731.8 million in procurement funding through FY2024. The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2025 budget requests no procurement funding for the PSC program. One oversight issue concerns the accuracy of the PSC’s estimatedprocurement cost, given the PSC’s size and internal complexity as well as cost growth in other Navy and Coast Guard shipbuilding programs. If substantial cost growth occurs in the PSC
program, it could raise a question regarding whether to grant some form of contract relief to the
PSC shipbuilder. Another oversight issue concerns the delivery date for the first PSC: the Coast
Guard originally aimed to have the first PSC delivered in 2024, but the ship’s estimated delivery
date has been delayed repeatedly and may now occur no earlier than 2029.
Commercially available polar icebreaker (CAPI).
The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2024 budget requested, and the FY2024 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Appropriations Act (Division C of H.R. 2882/P.L. 118-47 of March 23, 2024) provided, $125.0 million in procurement funding for the purchase of an existing commercially available polar icebreaker (CAPI) that would be modified to become a Coast Guard medium polar icebreaker. The ship the Coast Guard intends to purchase and modify is Aiviq, a U.S.-registered ship that was originally built to serve as an Arctic oil-exploration support ship, and which has an icebreaking capability sufficient for the ship to serve following modification as a Coast Guard medium polar icebreaker. The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2025 budget requests no procurement funding for the CAPI program.
The Coast Guard’s FY2025 Unfunded Priorities List (UPL) includes an item for $25.0
million in procurement funding for the ship.
Great Lakes icebreaker (GLIB). The Coast Guard’s FY2024 budget initiated a program for
procuring a new Great Lakes icebreaker (GLIB) that would have capabilities similar to those of
Mackinaw, the Coast Guard’s existing heavy GLIB. The FY2024 DHS Appropriations Act
(Division C of H.R. 2882/P.L. 118-47 of March 23, 2024) provided $20.0 million in procurement
funding for the GLIB program. The Coast Guard’s proposed FY2025 budget requests no
procurement funding for the program. The Coast Guard’s FY2025 UPL includes an item for $25.0
million in procurement funding for the program.
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https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL34391.....
Coast Guard Cutter Procurement: Background and Issues for Congress
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42567