Coast Guard icebreaker Healy cancels Arctic mission after electrical fire

The U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy docked astatine a Kodiak pier successful August 2023. (Brian Venua/KMXT)

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, 1 of nan nation’s 2 operational icebreakers, has been forced to cancel an Arctic ngo owed to mechanical issues. The ship, which had conscionable begun its summertime patrol northwest of Alaska successful nan Chukchi Sea, knowledgeable an electrical occurrence successful an engineering space.

The Coast Guard’s vice commandant, Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, discussed nan Healy during a caller question and reply pinch nan Brookings Institution. He said that of nan Coast Guard’s $12.3 cardinal budget, astir $10.5 cardinal is spent connected operations while only $1.6 cardinal is spent connected procurement. This has led to challenges keeping ships for illustration nan Healy mission-ready.

“If you want to get underway connected a awesome Coast Guard cutter today, you person to do what we telephone a controlled parts speech pinch different ships astatine nan pier. That’s a fancy word for cannibalization. We’ll bargain parts aliases borrow, actually, from nan different ships conscionable to get different vessel underway,” Lunday said. “Now you tin do that for short amounts of time, but erstwhile you do it complete a number of years, you’re eating your ain readiness, and that’s what we’re seeing.”

The 27-year-old icebreaker has since headed southbound to its location larboard of Seattle for repairs, pinch a extremity successful Dutch Harbor on nan way.

The occurrence has led to nan cancellation of 2 technological missions and jeopardized a patrol done nan Northwest Passage. Lunday hopes that aft returning to Seattle, nan aging vessel will return to nan Arctic Circle.

“We’re going to activity arsenic difficult arsenic we tin to repair it and effort and sphere nan remainder of nan patrol. But that’s successful doubt, and that’s a interest because if Healy can’t proceed that patrol, nan U.S. will person nary aboveground beingness successful nan Arctic this summer,” Lunday said.

The Coast Guard icebreaker Healy’s motor room. (Brian Venua/KMXT)

The U.S. presently operates only 2 icebreakers. According to Lunday, nan Coast Guard needs arsenic galore arsenic 9 icebreakers to meet its strategical needs successful nan Arctic.

The first of 3 caller cutters, nan Polar Sentinel, was group to beryllium delivered this twelvemonth but has yet to beryllium laid down. This comes aft nan programme has more than doubled successful costs to complete $5 billion.

In ray of these challenges, nan U.S. hopes to finalize a woody known arsenic the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort with Canada and Finland. The statement would see accusation sharing and workforce training to velocity up nan building of caller ships that would complement – and yet switch – nan Healy.