In 2019, we posted that US Coast Guard was finally getting an appropriation to build three new heavy polar icebreakers, followed by the construction of three new medium polar icebreakers. The Coast Guard currently has one heavy icebreaker, USCGC Polar Star, which is 46 years old and has suffered repeated breakdowns. It has been kept operating primarily by scavenging from a sister ship, Polar Sea which has not been in service since 2010. The Coast Guard also has one medium icebreaker, the ten-year-old USCGC Healy.

The first new icebreaker was due to be delivered in 2024. Last fall, however, the Coast Guard announced that delays due to the pandemic and design-related work will push the first new icebreaker to an expected 2025 delivery date, as reported by National Defense Magazine. 

This raises the question as to whether the Polar Star, the one remaining US heavy icebreaker, will be able to continue operating, even after a planned major overhaul. If the current delivery date is met for the first icebreaker, the Polar Star will be close to half a century old when the new icebreaker goes into service.

The Arctic has acquired increased strategic importance of late, due to the impact of global warming on Arctic navigation, as well as by the shattering of international cooperation in the region following the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine.