“U.S. in Talks to Buy 15 Icebreakers from Finland, Trump Says at NATO Summit” –gCaptain

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Finnish icebreaker Polaris leaving for sea trials on 16 June 2016. Photo credit: Tuomas Romu, via Wikipedia.

gCaptain reports,

“At the NATO summit in The Hague President Trump confirmed that the U.S. was in negotiations with Finland to buy up to 15 icebreakers from the country, including acquiring a used vessel currently available.”

The article suggests that the only readily available used icebreaker is the Polaris, pictured above, but questions its utility for the Coast Guard.

“Polaris, like most Finnish icebreakers, was designed for service in the Baltic Sea to escort commercial shipping at high average speeds. They use minimal crews, operating on 10-day port visit cycles. Very different from the USCG mission in the Arctic.”

Polaris is a dual fuel icebreaker, it has a capacity to run on LNG for up to ten days and up to 20 days on Marine Diesel. The crew is small at 16, with accommodations for up to 24, but this is a relative large ship. I suspect accommodations could be increased.

This looks looks like it might be usable in the Great Lakes if it can make its way through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. It is much more powerful than USCGC Mackinaw. But it may be just a bit too wide. Beam is reportedly 24 meters while the Seaway maximum is 23.8 meters, the difference is about 8 inches, but this may just be a matter of the actually beam having been rounded up to the nearest meter.

Since the endurance is actually closer to 30 days than 10, this ship still might be useful in the American Arctic, but accommodating space for communications, weapons, laboratories, and scientific personnel might be challenging. Notably it does not have a helicopter deck or hangar.

3 thoughts on ““U.S. in Talks to Buy 15 Icebreakers from Finland, Trump Says at NATO Summit” –gCaptain”

  2. Polaris has a moulded beam of 24.4 m (slightly over 80 ft) meaning it would be too wide for the St. Lawrence Seaway locks. Still, it would certainly be interesting to see how such enormous increase in icebreaking capability could improve winter navigation in the Great Lakes.

    However, a representative from the Finnish government has already confirmed that Polaris is off the table — as Finland’s newest and most capable icebreaking asset, it is needed in the home waters every winter. Instead, the second-hand icebreaker being discussed is most likely the 1993-built multipurpose icebreaker Fennica that has previously supported Shell’s drilling operations off Alaska.

    https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/us-looking-acquire-fennica-icebreaker-finland-order-several-new-ones

    Acquiring or leasing Fennica would certainly not be a long-term solution given the age of the vessel. Instead, it would provide the USCG a platform to train crews for future PSCs and ASCs as well as increase presence in the Arctic waters. It could even be deployed to Antarctica alongside USCGC Polar Star to take off strain from the ageing polar icebreaker.

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