Coast Guard and Navy officials told a House panel on Tuesday that their two services are considering creating a joint program office related to the acquisition of a heavy icebreaker for polar missions.
The services are committed to working together on “a memorandum of understanding on how we would work together collaboratively on an icebreaker,” Allison Stiller, the principal civilian deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition, told the House Transportation Coast Guard Subcommittee. She later said that “Coupled with congressional support, both the Navy and the Coast Guard are working to develop a program plan to efficiently and effectively move the icebreaker program.”
Stiller said that the Navy will be providing its experience in shipbuilding design and acquisition to the Coast Guard for the icebreaker.
To ensure it pursues the best acquisition strategy for a new icebreaker, the Coast Guard is “leveraging our strong and longstanding partnership with Navy,” Coast Guard Vice Commandant Adm. Charles Michel told the subcommittee. “To this end we are working with the Navy to develop a program plan to efficiently and effectively move the icebreaker program forward considering mechanisms such as block buys, multiple years procurements, and other opportunities to acquire icebreakers as quickly and responsibly as possible.”
Michel pointed to the Coast Guard’s experience cooperating with the Navy on the design and acquisition of its lone medium icebreaker, the Healy, in the late 1990s, saying working together on the new vessel will mutually benefit both services “while energizing the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base.”
A Coast Guard spokesman told Defense Daily via email after the hearing that the joint effort on the icebreaker program is “very much in the planning stage.”
The Coast Guard has a requirement for three heavy icebreakers and three medium icebreakers based on a 2010 study called the High Latitude Mission Analysis Report and 2013 Mission Need Statement. Currently, the service operates the Polar Star heavy icebreaker and the Healy.
A heavy icebreaker would give the Coast Guard the ability to operate year-round in the Arctic region while a medium icebreaker operates in the polar regions on a seasonal schedule.
Michel said that as part of the Coast Guard’s Arctic mission studies, it is looking at the need for additional icebreakers. He added that medium icebreakers can complement the heavy icebreakers in at certain times of the year and in certain ice conditions.
“We have recently charted an integrated product team (IPT) to define an operating concept and requirements for medium icebreakers,” Michel said. “That IPT will survey available technologies and assets to inform the operational requirements for those vessels.”
The Coast Guard is seeking $150 million in its FY ’17 budget request to accelerate production of a heavy polar icebreaker. The vessel is expected to cost about $1 billion and a notional schedule released earlier this year by the service says a contract would be awarded by FY ’19.
Michel told the subcommittee in June that the heavy icebreaker would be ready in 2024 or 2025 if the schedule holds. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported that the new icebreaker wouldn’t be ready until late in 2025.
Senate appropriators are recommending $1 billion for the new icebreaker in the Pentagon’s budget while House appropriators are proposing just $37.7 million, saying the Coast Guard doesn’t have its plans ready for the new vessel.
The 40-year old Polar Star, which has undergone a reactivation, is expected to remain useful until the end of 2022, according to the GAO, which would mean a gap of at least three years in heavy icebreaking capabilities. The Coast Guard is currently examining its way forward to bridge the gap in heavy icebreaker capabilities between when a new vessel is ready and when the Polar Star would be deactivated.
Michel told the panel on Thursday that a study due to Congress on July 24 will report on potential plans to refurbish the heavy icebreaker Polar Sea, which isn’t operational. The Coast Guard has to decide whether to extend the service life of the Polar Star through a “rolling recapitalization” or reactivate the Polar Sea, but cautioned that a recently completed seven-month material assessment of the Polar Sea showed that refurbishment “would be a significant undertaking and would likely far exceed the cost and scope of work that was needed to reactivate Polar Star.”
Based on a review of Coast Guard data, the GAO estimates costs to reactivate the Polar Sea are between $99.2 million and $427 million.
Leasing a heavy icebreaker isn’t an option as the Coast Guard hasn’t found any to be available worldwide, Michel said. He said there are some medium icebreakers available commercially on “the global market” but none that are suitable for military missions.
While the icebreaker recapitalization focus is on the heavy ships, Michel said the 17-year old Healy is approaching a mid-life maintenance overhaul, adding that the service is investigating a “segmented midlife” maintenance plan to limit any negative impacts to operations. He added that a segmented service life extension program for Healy would aim to keep that vessel around “for the maximum extent as possible.”
Ronald O’Rourke, an analyst with the Congressional Research Service, told the panel that if the Coast Guard took a block buy approach to acquiring two heavy icebreakers, it could save between $100 million to $200 million for both ships by combining the purchase of materials and components for the vessels.
There is a lot of industry interest in the Coast Guard’s icebreaker plans. At a Coast Guard industry day to discuss the heavy icebreaker, 10 shipbuilding companies were represented.
The Healy was built by Huntington Ingalls Industries [HII] and commissioned in 1999. The Polar Star and Polar Sea were commissioned in 1976 and 1977, respectively, and both were built by the former Lockheed Shipbuilding.
With Arctic ice melting and more of the region open to navigation, particularly in the warm weather months, there is increased interest in terms of exploration and maintaining a permanent operating presence. Missions include defense readiness such as maritime security, search and rescue, and scientific research.