Northern Exposure: Partnership, Presence Key to U.S. Strategy In the Arctic.

• Author: Heckmann, Laura

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland -- With climate change opening once impenetrable Arctic sea lanes, great power competition is heading north, leading the United States and its allies to invest more in partnerships and presence in the region to maintain free and open seas.

According to the White House's National Strategy for the Arctic Region, released in October 2022, climate change in the Arctic has thawed permafrost and degraded ice sheets. The Arctic Council affirmed in 2021 that the Arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the world.

A more accessible Arctic means more opportunities--and more challenges.

The Arctic is a "key area to operate" in, and China and Russia are militarizing it "because it's so important for world trade," said Vice Adm. William Houston, commander of naval submarine forces, Submarine Force Atlantic and Allied Submarine Command.

As the Northern Sea Route opens, it will be the shortest passage for many international trade routes, he added during a panel discussion at the Navy League's recent Sea-Air-Space exposition.

For the Coast Guard, the Arctic region is one of strategic significance.

"It's an area of increasing activity ... [and] increased global competition, whether it's resources, whether it's for access, whether it's for presence," said Adm. Steven Poulin, vice commandant of the Coast Guard.

Both the Navy and Coast Guard agree--presence is paramount.

"It's about protecting America's sovereignty and sovereign rights," Poulin said. "And that's what we're committed to do at the Coast Guard. Presence matters."

One way the Coast Guard intends to maintain presence is by acquiring new Polar Security Cutters, Poulin added. Designed for open-water icebreaking with reinforced hulls and specially angled bows, the new heavy icebreakers will be the first commissioned since the 1970s.

The Coast Guard's Polar Security Cutter program seeks to acquire three new heavy polar ice breakers, according to the Congressional Research Service report, "Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (Polar Icebreaker) Program: Background and Issues for Congress," published in March.

The Coast Guard and Navy awarded a contract for the Polar Security Cutter to VT Halter Marine Inc., out of Pascagoula, Mississippi, for detail design and construction in April 2019. The Navy and Coast Guard estimated in 2020 the total procurement costs of the three Polar Security Cutters in then-year dollars at just over $1 billion for the first ship, $794...