More and more,nations see the Arctic as a bulwark of their economic and military futures.As a case in point,the new Russian Project 23550 Ice-class patrol ships,or corvettes,resemble warships more than anything else.The idea of the project was to add full surface combatant capability to an icebreaker-apparently a first in naval history.
Besides a medium caliber deck gun,the 23550 will have two payload bays astern to accommodate containerised missile systems.They will also have a flight deck and hangar for anti-submarine/utility helicopters.What is more,there may even be an anti-aircraft system and small arms emplacements.
Thus the two 23550s will have strategic,and not just tactical,military implications,since cruise missiles can range for hundreds of miles/kilometers.The class is slated to enter service by 2020.*
On a more detailed level,it's been ascertained that the Ice-class will feature a 76 mm AK-176 MA naval gun in a stealth turret for deflecting radar rays,and will be armed with up to eight 3M-54 Kalibr supersonic cruise missiles.Military intelligence publisher IHS Jane's quotes a Russian defence ministry source as saying it will be:
a fully featured combatant designed in accordance with the navy's requirements for ships of such a class;she can break ice of up to 1.7 m.*
Russia currently has a fleet of about 40 icebreakers and is planning to acquire at least 12 more.*
In January 2018,then US Coast Guard Commandant ADL Paul Zukunft confirmed a Washington Times report about the capabilities of the proposed Coast Guard heavy icebreaker cutters.He revealed that,for the first time ever,Coast Guard icebreakers would be fully weaponisable,with the space,weight and power supply to support cruise missiles and other advanced weapons.
According to his successor,ADL Karl Shultz,the Coast Guard aims to award the first contract for the first of three new heavy icebreakers,to be known as the Polar Security Cutter,in spring 2019.He is cautiously optimistic this will happen.The estimated cost is 950 million dollars per ship.An additional three medium icebreakers are also on the service's shopping list.
ADL Shultz told the National Press Club on 6 December 2018:
Diplomacy and cooperation are really hollow without presence.If we're not present,if we don't own the environment today,guess who owns it tomorrow:our competitors.*
On Christmas Day 2018,President Donald Trump made phone calls to a number of military units,including Coast Guard District 17 in Juneau,Alaska.On the Polar Security Cutter,he observed that:
The bad part is the cost.The good part is,it's the most powerful in the world.The ice is in big trouble when that thing gets finished.It'll go right through it.It's very expensive,but that's OK.*
Currently,the US Coast Guard only has two operational icebreaker cutters:the Healy,assigned to the Arctic;and the Polar Star,assigned mainly to the Antarctic.The Polar Sea has failed engines and is used to supply its sister ship the Polar Star with obsolete parts.
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