From Arctic Today:
Adm. Karl L. Schultz, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, said the service has plans to build a third heavy icebreaker, and intends to build three medium breakers after that.
In a speech in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Schultz highlighted the $555 million request to Congress for a second icebreaker in the Trump administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 that was released last week.
“And the good news is, there’s an acquisitions and funding strategy beyond that to build a third,” he said.
But Schultz did not mention a timeline for this third icebreaker.
Last May, he said the budget for 2021, which begins on Oct. 1, 2020, would “get after” awards for both the second and third icebreaker.
The president’s budget request only includes funding for one — although that could change in the final budget passed by Congress.....MORE
In April 2019, the Coast Guard awarded a contract to build its first heavy icebreaker in nearly half a century.
But the U.S. Government Accountability Office recently released a report detailing concerns that the construction timeline of this icebreaker may be too ambitious.
Delays in funding for subsequent vessels could push back the introduction of the three heavy breakers beyond 2028, which was the goal Schultz mentioned in May.
Schultz also announced that the Coast Guard is “developing operational requirements for medium icebreakers,” with the aim of establishing a fleet of “at least” three heavy icebreakers followed by three medium icebreakers.
The Coast Guard will use those discussions to inform a vessel design for the medium icebreakers. The design for the Healy, the only active medium icebreaker in the Coast Guard fleet, is already two decades old.
Schultz called the current fleet of two icebreakers “woefully unacceptable.”....
