WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Coast Guard\u2019s last remaining icebreaker has just over half a decade left in it at most, putting enormous pressure on the service to get a ship designed and built on a constrained timeline, the service\u2019s No. 2 officer said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need to get that first heavy icebreaker on the water in 2023, that\u2019s about it for Polar Star, which is the nation\u2019s only heavy icebreaker,\u201d Adm. Charles Michel said at the Defense News Conference in Pentagon City, Virginia. \u201cThat ship basically goes from Antarctica to the yards, Antarctica to the yards. And there is no backup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut in order to get that first icebreaker in the water by 2023, we have to get that first big slug of money in 2018. This is a critical year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Coast Guard requested $19 million in funding for the icebreaker in 2018, according to the Congressional Research Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Coast Guard is cautiously optimistic it will get the funding, Michel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m optimistic we\u2019re going to get it, but it\u2018s another one of those competing priorities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Coast Guard is aiming to build three heavy and three medium icebreakers over the coming years, Michel said, which is the level needed to fulfill all the Coast Guard\u2019s missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To get there, the service will need to tap expertise from overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t built a heavy icebreaker in this country since the Polar Sea and the Polar Star in the mid-1970s,\u201d Michael said. \u201cAll the major icebreaker technology developments over the past 40 are all overseas in countries like Finland, Sweeden, Russia. It\u2019s going to require a significant bit of foreign expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n The Coast Guard\u2019s last remaining icebreaker has just over half a decade left in it at most, putting enormous pressure on the service to get a ship designed and built on a constrained timeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":101078,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":110,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"7":{"categories":["daily-news-roundup","newsletters","your-navy","news"],"primary_category":"your-navy"}}},"categories":[160,110,11,16,36,30,48],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3361],"class_list":["post-55581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-defense-news-conference","category-global","category-naval","category-newsletters","category-smr","category-the-americas"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"T3VFGYJFZNCFBBUA6XCEYZOM3Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/smr\/defense-news-conference\/2017\/09\/06\/us-coast-guards-last-heavy-icebreaker-wont-make-it-past-2023\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n