The U.S. Coast Guard is expanding their fleet of icebreakers, and may be homeporting one in Alaska. To navigate the world’s most icy waters, icebreakers have thicker hulls.
Thursday night, the U.S. Senate approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the upcoming fiscal years.
On Wednesday, Senator Dan Sullivan (Republican) stated that the National Defense Authorization Act, for the upcoming fiscal years, appropriates $150m towards the purchase and conversion of an existing icebreaker. According to Sullivan, the vessel would most likely be homeported at Juneau.
Sullivan stated that he hopes that it will be the first of many Alaska-based companies.
Sullivan stated that there should be a number of ports in the state that could homeport an icebreaker. However, right now, he believes this is great news for the state.
Two U.S. Arctic icebreakers are currently operational, with both being based in Seattle. Last year, the Department of Defense announced plans to build a new Arctic icebreaker at $552,654,727.
Sullivan stated that adding an icebreaker Alaska’s Coast Guard fleet to its existing fleet would result in 190 service personnel and hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure spending.
According to Sullivan, language in the legislation would also reduce the timeframe for purchasing an icebreaker that is already in use from six to one year.
Sullivan stated that Alaskan icebreaker fleet expansion is a priority. Russia boasts the largest fleet of icebreakers in the world, many more than the United States.
“Everyone in our state intuitively understands that we need more icebreakers for our security, economic, and environmental interests.” Sullivan stated that icebreakers should be homeported to the Arctic if they are located in America.
Thursday night’s vote was unanimously approved by Sen. Sullivan as well as Sen. Lisa Murkowski. The final version contains $858 billion in defense spending . It is now headed to President Biden’s desk.
