Coast Guard Icebreakers are ancient
U.S. Coast Guard
In the United States, President Donald Trump is continuing his first-term focus on building a big, new American icebreaker fleet. Days after his inauguration, the President broke from a North Carolina hurricane-recovery briefing and made a surprise announcement that “we’re going to order about 40 big icebreakers.”
The statement, widely dismissed by industry experts as a gaffe, was well-timed. Just as the President was committing America to a massive, as-yet un-funded 40-icebreaker buildup, a raggedy set of aged American icebreaking tugs were struggling to free a 663-ft transport ship, the Canadian-flagged Manitoulin, trapped by wind-blown lake ice.
The endangered cargo vessel, likely rushing to beat Trump’s threatened 25% tariff on Canadian goods, had just unloaded a cargo of Canadian wheat in Buffalo, and got stuck in the ice outside the frosty New York port.
With the local Coast Guard ship—icebreaking tug Bristol Bay (WTGB 102)—not up to the task of breaking thick, wind-blown harbor ice alone, a second American icebreaking tug, the Neah Bay (WTGB 105), was called in. Nothing worked. Later, as the weather improved, a more robust icebreaker, the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Samuel Risley, finally managed to turn the tide and free the ship. A few lakes away, America’s sole purpose-built fresh water icebreaker, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Mackinaw (WLBB 30), cut a maintenance availability short to rumble into action.
The multi-day effort to free the Manitoulin is a big deal, reinforcing industry-driven concerns that the Great Lakes requires better icebreaking support to be competitive in the 21st Century. According to the Lake Carriers’ Association, inadequate icebreaking resources in the Great Lakes inflicts over a billion dollars of damage to the U.S. economy and costs about 5,000 jobs.
For a key North American economic engine like the Great Lakes, an inability to keep shipping channels clear of ice is not good for modern industrial practices, and an embarrassing national security threat for all of North America.
A rendering of Canada’s Program Icebreaker
Davie Shipbuilding
40 Big Icebreakers Boosts Aging Fleet:
President Trump’s commitment to bulk up the American icebreaker fleet is welcome development. The Coast Guard icebreakers that finally freed the Manitoulin are old and ready for replacement by new tugs or dual-use breakers capable of working in either the Arctic or the Great Lakes.
While most of America’s attention is focused on America’s ancient fleet of large, showpiece icebreakers—the ancient USCGC Polar Star and the less capable USCGC Healy—the Coast Guard’s ice management workhorses, lower-profile “utility” icebreaking ships—the icebreaking tugs and buoy tenders that do a lot of the low-profile, day-to-day work of breaking up ice jams or freeing frozen harbor infrastructure—are getting old, too.
As the breakout progressed, North America’s icebreaker age gap was on full display. USCGC Neah Bay and USCGC Bristol Bay, representatives of the Coast Guard’s 9-ship fleet of 140-ft icebreaking tugs, were launched in the late Seventies and early Eighties. With the fleet well into their fourth decade of service, and their cash-strapped operators acutely sensitive to the need to nurse aging systems aboard the old vessels, these handy harbor-clearing utility vessels will be progressively less and less useful in a pinch. Despite going through a comprehensive refit, these ships will need replacement by the 2030s.
But America isn’t the only country that needs new mid-sized icebreakers. The larger Canadian Coast Guard Ship Samuel Risley—the breaker that finally helped turn the tide with the stuck Manitoulin—is 40 years old. Little more than an ice-hardened oilfield utility vessel, modern, multi-mission Coast Guards have largely outgrown such simple craft. But, as a robust buoy tender, the Canadian vessel is still certified to break two feet of ice, and the ship can reportedly maintain progress through ice that is almost three feet thick.
Unlike America’s old fleet of icebreaking tugs, the aging Canadian cutter can take on limited tasks in the Arctic. Despite an industry preference for specialized, fresh water icebreakers for Great Lakes work, dual-use capability is a template to follow. In the past, American icebreakers split their time between winter service on the Great Lakes and Antarctic support work in the summer. The Samuel Risley has successfully operated in the waters around Greenland, supporting an annual voyage to resupply the isolated Thule airbase—offering a useful operational template if Trump is interested in securing strategic outposts in Greenland.
Given that both countries have old ice management fleets, collaboration makes sense. Frankly, Canada is farther ahead in refreshing their mid-sized icebreaker fleet than America, and, with strong ties to Finland, Canada is well positioned to leverage Finland’s polar-focused naval architecture capabilities, backfilling a massive U.S. skills deficit.
U.S. efforts to leverage Finland’s intellectual property can be combined with boosting the demand signal, lowering the per-unit costs. Canada already plans to procure up to six “heavy program icebreakers”, robust mid-size vessels capable of working both in the Arctic and in the Great Lakes. America could certainly use a good handful of these handy-size icebreakers, as well.
Assuming control of the building program is a neat prospect. With each “heavy program icebreaker” capable of breaking 4.5 feet of ice, cargo vessels in the Great Lakes can extend their operational seasons with less risk, while, in the American northwest, Nome and other traditionally ice-bound Alaskan harbors with low draft requirements can stay open longer, operating with the confidence that fuel and other key supplies won’t be interrupted.
With Trump threatening big tariffs, a big trade could be in the offering. If Canada-based Davie Shipbuilding commits to invest in the United States, supporting at least one new U.S. shipyard, American shipbuilders could work with Davie’s Finland-based experts to acquire the design, gain basic icebreaker fabrication skills, and start a massive 40-icebreaker production run, some of which Canada, Finland and others, could then, potentially, purchase or lease.
The business case for icebreakers in the Arctic and Antarctic is clear. Rather than dismissing President Trump’s surprise commitment for 40 big icebreakers as a childish gaffe, it might be smart to consider this announcement the first glimpse of a savvy strategy to break both some bureaucratic China and, maybe, some polar ice as well.
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Publish date : 2025-01-27 23:49:00
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