The $1.2 trillion spending package signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday furnishes $11.8 billion to the U.S. Coast Guard to support its mission and operations, including the purchase of a commercially available icebreaker to provide coverage in the polar regions.
The service, which currently has a heavy icebreaker and a medium icebreaker capable of ocean operations, has requested at least $125 million each year since 2021 to buy a commercial icebreaker.Coast Guard officials have said they needed the ship in order to continue operations in the polar regions while waiting for the delivery of three planned polar security icebreakers.
The law does not specify which ship the service must buy, but it has had its eye on the multipurpose offshore vessel Aiviq, a tug supply vessel with icebreaking capabilities owned by a subsidiary of Edison Chouest Offshore.
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The ship is expected to be homeported in Juneau, according to members of Alaska’s congressional delegation.
“Inclusion of funding for the first icebreaker in a generation is significant progress for our state and our country’s national security,” Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said in a statement Thursday. “Our national security interests in the Arctic have never been more critical.”
Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, concurred, saying, “Adding an icebreaker to the Coast Guard’s fleet will allow…
