A notional acquisition schedule for the new Polar Icebreaker Program released by the Coast Guard on Wednesday shows that the service is considering awarding a contract for the vessel in the next two to three years.
The notional schedule was released Wednesday evening along with a draft data package outlining the requirements for the icebreaker and questions for industry as part of the Coast Guard’s engagement strategy with vendors before any draft and formal solicitations are issued.
Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft on Wednesday announced that the requirements for the new polar icebreaker would be released later that day and said that funding for the ship will be included in the Obama administration’s FY ’17 budget request to Congress next month (Defense Daily, Jan. 13, 2016). He said the icebreaker funding will be in the Coast Guard’s budget and will be separate from the rest of its acquisition budget.
President Obama in September during a visit to Alaska said the nation needs new icebreakers. Robert Papp, the State Department’s special representative to the Arctic, said on Wednesday that Obama is committed to multiple icebreakers and that more than two will be needed to help meet the United States’ missions in the Arctic and Antarctic.
Under the notional acquisition schedule, a draft Request for Proposals (RFP) for the polar icebreaker will be issued during the first quarter of FY ’17 and a final RFP sometime during the fourth quarter of FY ’17, or first quarter of FY ’18. The contract award would occur anytime between the fourth quarter of FY ’18 and fourth quarter of FY ’19.
In March the Coast Guard will host an Industry Day to as part of its market research for the polar icebreaker and will follow the event up with on-on-one sessions with prospective shipbuilders and ship designers in the weeks after.
The Coast Guard hasn’t selected an acquisition strategy for the ship or ships yet and is looking for industry feedback to help shape the strategy and requirements. Regarding acquisition strategy, the Coast Guard wants feedback on going forward with a government-provided design and the service desires input on the length of contract and detail design phases as well as construction.
The draft data package contains a description of missions to include international operations, the climate envelope for operations, and mission scenarios that involve ice operations, defense readiness, search and rescue, marine environmental protection, living marine resources, aids to navigation, marine safety, and other law enforcement.
As for icebreaking, the ship shall be capable of independently breaking through ice with a thickness of at least six feet with an objective of at least eight feet at a continuous speed of three knots or above.
The polar icebreaker shall have a minimum range of 21,500 nautical miles at 12 knots in ice free waters and have a threshold performance of 3,300 operational hours and objective performance of 4,050 operational hours annually.
Aviation capabilities of the ship include the ability to hangar any combination of two Coast Guard H-65 helicopters, Coast Guard or Navy H-60 helicopters, and unmanned aircraft systems that don’t exceed the footprint of a Coast Guard H-60.
The polar icebreaker will also have the capability to independently launch, recover, maintain and operate two assigned boats with over-the-horizon capability.
For defensive and offensive capabilities, the ship will employ four removable .50 caliber machine guns.
The icebreaker will also be equipped with a wide range of voice and data communications capabilities that have a secure workspace, and surface search and air search radars.
The Coast Guard hasn’t released cost estimates for heavy icebreaker, although unofficial estimates are around $1 billion per ship.
The Coast Guard currently has one operational heavy icebreaker, the 399-foot Polar Star, and one medium icebreaker, the 420-foot Healy. Demand for new national icebreaking capability comes as climate change is resulting in Arctic ice melt, opening the polar region to more sea traffic and natural resource exploration.