The Coast Guard expects to incrementally release funding for initial design study contracts for its Polar Icebreaker Program due to an ongoing continuing budget resolution that keeps the federal government operating at FY ’16 spending levels, a Coast Guard acquisition official said on Thursday.

The Coast Guard just before Christmas released a Request for Quote (RFQ) to industry for the heavy icebreaker studies and plans to award five contracts value at up to $4 million each. But with funding constrained under the continuing resolution, once the Coast Guard awards the study contracts the funding will be released in increments, Rear Adm. Michael Haycock, director of Acquisition Programs for the service, said on the sidelines following a shipbuilding panel discussion at the annual Surface Navy Association Symposium.

The Coast Guard heavy icebreaker Polar Star pictured leaving
The Coast Guard heavy icebreaker Polar Star.

Haycock told Defense Daily the study contracts are expected to be awarded in late March or early April.

The RFQ was released on Dec. 22, 2016, and industry has until Jan. 20 to respond, but Haycock said the Coast Guard may extend the response date to give industry more time to generate study proposals. He said the Coast Guard will also look into whether it needs to expand the funding available for the study contracts so as to not unnecessarily limit the scope of the study work.

The Coast Guard has a requirement for three new heavy polar icebreakers and three medium polar icebreakers. The service currently operates one reactivated heavy icebreaker and one medium icebreaker that operate in the polar regions. A new heavy icebreaker is expected to cost around $1 billion.

Haycock said the Coast Guard is reviewing its requirements for medium icebreakers. Once that is done, it will vet and validate the requirements before deciding on any future course of action, he said.

The Coast Guard’s plan is to have the first new heavy icebreaker delivered by 2023. Haycock said during the panel discussion that the Coast Guard’s motto for acquiring the icebreaker is “fast and affordable and simple, so we’re looking to leverage design work that’s already been done on other icebreakers so that it doesn’t take us 10 years to build an icebreaker.”

The forthcoming industry studies for the heavy icebreaker are all part of achieving the aggressive schedule, Haycock said. The studies will help the Coast Guard refine the draft system specifications.

The icebreaker will have various levels of secure communications and be interoperable with other federal civilian and Defense Department assets, making it a “national security platform,” Haycock said.

Senate defense appropriators provided $1 billion in their version of the FY ’17 federal spending bill for construction of the icebreaker and House homeland security appropriator recommended less than $40 million, arguing that the Coast Guard’s $150 million request couldn’t all be obligated this year.

Haycock said that however the two congressional chambers work out their funding differences the Coast Guard believes it can still achieve the 2023 delivery date.