Coast Guard Icebreaker Competition Under Way.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

* With the Coast Guard's sole heavy-duty polar icebreaker quickly reaching the end of its life, the sea service has kicked off a competition that will pit some of the United States' most storied shipyards against each other as they vie for the opportunity to build the nation's next polar vessel.

At the annual State of the Coast Guard address in March, commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft announced that the service would issue a request for proposals for a new heavy polar icebreaker the next day.

With the support of both the Trump administration and Congress, the lead vessel would begin the recapitalization of the United States' fleet of icebreakers, he said.

"We're closer than we've ever been to new icebreakers," Zukunft said during the event, which was held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.G

For years the service has been pushing for funding to procure a new class of vessels as its legacy fleet ages and a warming climate turns international attention toward the Arctic.

Its current line of operational ships includes the USCGC Polar Star, a heavy-duty icebreaker, and the USCGC Healy, a medium-duty vessel used primarily for research purposes. The Polar Sea, a heavy-duty model, is mothballed.

The current plan is to procure six new ships--three heavy and three medium variants. The lead vessel is slated to be fielded by 2023 and is expected to cost under $ 1 billion, Zukunft said during a meeting with reporters.

The service is planning to procure the lead ship first and then do a block-buy contract for subsequent vessels, he said.

The Coast Guard requested $750 million for the icebreaker effort in the president's proposed fiscal year 2019 budget.

"Funding provides detail, design, long-lead-time materials, construction, program management office support, feasibility studies and maintaining the indicative design, cybersecurity planning, project resident office initiation and Navy reimbursable technical support," the document said.

The Navy is working with the Coast Guard via an integrated program office on the acquisition effort.

In 2016, the Coast Guard released a request for information from industry to collect feedback to inform its polar icebreaker approach and schedule. In October, the Navy released a draft request for proposals for the detail design and construction of one heavy icebreaker with options for two additional such ships.

The Coast Guard hopes to choose a builder by fiscal year 2019, Zukunft said. Five companies are expected to...