Arctic Blitz: Coast Guard Heads Far North

On 25 July 2020, the USCGC Healy (WAGB-20) departed from Dutch Harbor, Alaska and headed to its science missions and Operation Arctic Shield, the service's annual comprehensive assessment and respons in the high latitudes.The Healy is considered the largest and most technologically advanced cutter in the Coast Guard.It is in the vanguard of the Coast Guard surge to the Arctic in summer and autumn,in spite of,yet aware of COVID-19.
Coast Guard Pacific Area Commander VADM Linda L. Fagan assured the Wilson Center think tank:
Our Arctic Strategy is unchanged.The pandemic has not changed our priority, our intention to uphold American sovereignty, advance our national security interests and promote economic prosperity throughout the Arctic.Everyone is postured and remains operationally ready to conduct operations and meet our mission requirements in the high latitudes.
We are mindful of the many communities in and around Alaska and are taking all precautions to be sure we don't inadvertently help to spread the pandemic.*
The Arctic Shield operation will enhance maritime domain awareness; strengthen partnerships; and build preparedness, prevention and response capabilities across the Arctic domain.As the nation's lead federal agency for ensuring maritime safety and security in the Arctic, the Coast Guard protects the nation's interests, safeguards the environment and strengthens our international, federal, state,local and tribal partnerships.*
In Arctic Shield, the Coast Guard
typically deploys a number of cutters, aircraft and personnel to the Arctic with the objectives of Improving Awareness, Broadening Partnerships and Modernizing Governance.*
In future,a major role will be played by the new Polar Security Cutters.The PSCs will enable the US to maintain defence readiness in the Arctic and Antarctic r
Regions; enforce treaties and other laws needed to safeguard both industry and the environment; provide port, waterways and coastal security.
The PSC programme is being managed by an Integrated (US Coast Guard/US Navy) Program Office.On 23 April 2019 the IPO awarded a contract to VT Halter Marine of Pascagoula, Mississippi for the design and construction of the lead PSC, with an option for two more.*
The PSC will conduct national missions; respond to critical events; and project presence in the polar regions.Said Coast Guard Commandant ADM Karl L. Schultz:
Against the backdrop of great power competition, the PSC is key to our nation's presence in the polar regions.*
Construction of the first of the powerful ships will begin in 2021, with delivery slated for 2024.A total of six PSCs are to be built.*
In 2017, the US and Canadian Governments jointly tested models of such heavy icebreakers.*

US Coast Guard Reacts to Russian Corvette - Icebreaker Project

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.