Sticker shock: $1 billion for new icebreaker.

• Author: Magnuson, Stew
• Position: Homeland Security News

* The cost to build one new polar icebreaker for the Coast Guard may top $1 billion, a Congressional Research Service report recently stated.

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And that's in 2012 dollars. When work will start in earnest and how much it will cost when it begins is still unknown.

Chronically underfunded even in the best of fiscal times, the Coast Guard spends about $900 million per year to recapitalize all its ships and aircraft.

"It's the equivalent of telling the Navy they have to suddenly fund another aircraft carrier," said Patrick Bright, chief analytical officer at AMI International, a shipbuilding consulting firm in Bremerton, Wash.

Brian Slattery, an analyst at the Heritage Foundation, said, "Even if the icebreaker was the only acquisition priority for the Coast Guard, it would be tough to afford it."

The service has known for decades that its statutory obligation to be the sole federal agency responsible for busting through polar ice was at risk. A 1983 polar icebreaking requirements study it produced spelled out the upcoming shortages.

"Design of a new icebreaker should start immediately, emphasizing research as well as escort and logistics capabilities, and should reflect the needs of both primary and secondary users," the report stated. Since then, the service was forced to retire several icebreakers and was only allocated the funding to build one, the Healy. It is a medium-size ship intended for scientific research, and was not commissioned until 16 years after the 1983 report.

The Coast Guard now only has two heavy polar icebreakers remaining, the Polar Star and Polar Sea, which have exceeded their 30-year service lives and have been in and out of mothballs for several years.

Polar Star, after undergoing repairs, returned to service in December after six years of being docked. After upgrades, it is expected to last another seven to 10 years, said the March 2013 CRS report, "Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker Modernization," authored by Ronald O'Rourke.

Polar Sea broke down in 2010 and is no longer operational, the report added.

A 2011 study for Congress said one heavy icebreaker would cost $800 million to $925 million based on 2008 dollars, but by 2012 it would swell to $900 million to $1 billion.

The Coast Guard has requested relatively small amounts in the 2013 and 2014 budgets--$8 million and $2 million respectively--to kick off the acquisition program with an eye toward awarding a contract in about five years, and delivery in...