The Navy did have 1.5 icebreakers and now they have half of one.
Well, actually, the US has no operational icebreakers now.
The Coast Guard’s other icebreaker, the ancient heavy Polar Star, is undergoing a service life extension program at the Mare Island Dry Dock in California [H/T to Q Captain].
The fire reportedly damaged a starboard transformer as a result of which the starboard engine remains inoperable.
The Coast Guard’s other icebreaker, the 50-year old Polar Star, is not available during summer as it is undergoing a service life extension program at the Mare Island Dry Dock in California.
Healy departed from Seattle for its summer Arctic patrol on June 12, 2024 taking it through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea. It was traveling in Canadian waters near Banks Island around July 25 when it experienced an engineering space fire.
The sequence of events was broadly confirmed around two weeks later on August 7 by Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral Kevin E. Lunday during a talk at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.
“Coast Guard Cutter Healy, one of our only two icebreakers, had just begun her summer patrol and was up north of Alaska and the Chukchi Sea. It had an electrical fire in the engineering spaces; she’s now having to return to home port to try and affect repairs.”
There’s a whisper the US is building new icebreakers with Canada and Finland but we shall see what transpires.
Leaders from the US, Canada and Finland formed the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE Pact) on 11 July to collaborate on strengthening shipbuilding in the three nations, and their security and economic ties.
The three governments plan to construct icebreakers and other Arctic support vessels, collaborate on workforce development and exchange information. They also hope other nations will order icebreakers from shipyards in US, Canada and Finland to support the capital intensity of multi-ship construction.
The plan is to develop a memorandum of understanding from this initial ICE Pact by the end of 2024 and form a framework of how this collaboration will work in practice.
The Russians have the largest icebreaker fleet on Earth and decades of port and living facilities along more than 50% of the Arctic Circle. They have even commissioned a combat icebreaker. The Russian icebreaker fleet consists of 41 icebreakers, including 34 diesel and 7 nuclear powered. The fleet’s total shaft power reached 697.2 MW, according to Ministry of Transport .
The vessel, constructed at the Admiralty Shipyards in St Petersburg, was initially scheduled for commissioning in 2023 but has faced delays, partly due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, The War Zone report said.
The Ivan Papanin’s armament includes an AK-176MA 76mm gun and can be fitted with containerized launchers for Klub and Kalibr cruise missiles, which would significantly enhance its combat capabilities.
Russia has a growing fleet of around 40 icebreakers and ice-capable ships, including the unique Project 23550 class specifically designed for combat and breaking through ice up to 5.5 feet thick.
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