Coast Guard To Deliver Nuclear Icebreaker Plan to White House
The plan will include options to lease new breakers or build new nuclear-powered ships as Russia and China leap ahead of US capabilities in the Arctic.
By Paul McLeary on July 28, 2020 at 12:35 PM
WASHINGTON: The Coast Guard is on track to deliver plans for a new generation of potentially nuclear-powered icebreakers to the White House by August 10, just two months after the Trump administration issued a surprise public directive to do so.
For decades, the US has only used nuclear power on its supercarriers and submarines. Russia has nine nuclear-powered icebreakers. The ability to go long voyages without refueling is attractive in the infrastructure-poor Arctic, especially given the immense power demands of plowing a ship through ice.
The plans to be presented next month won’t affect the acquisition, already underway, of three new conventionally-powered breakers — known as Polar Security Cutters — over the next six years. Instead, it will be a blueprint for three ships of yet-to-be-determined design that the Coast Guard and Department of Homeland Security will procure beyond 2026.
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/07/coast-guard-to-deliver-nuclear-icebreaker-plan-to-white-house/
