US Coast Guard deploys two polar icebreakers to Arctic Ocean

The United States Coast Guard is operating two polar icebreakers at the same time in the Arctic Ocean

May not sound like much, but it's the first time that's happened in more than a decade

According to the automatic identification systems on board the vessels, the United States Coast Guard cutters Healy and Storris recently met up in the waters off Unalaska in the Aleutian Island chain

The Healy then steamed north to conduct its annual science missions in the Arctic Circle

The Storys was in Dutch Harbor at last check, but will be performing a number of tasks while deployed on its first Arctic patrol

It's the first time since 2013 that the United States Coast Guard had the resources to put two polar icebreakers in the Arctic at the same time

I think it provides more coverage for the United States. Salmer Cagliano is a university professor, maritime historian, and host of the YouTube channel What's Going On With Shipping

He says the Arctic is seeing more traffic now than ever before

China, Korea, Sweden, Russia, and others are all expanding Arctic operations. Well, the U.S. went very big in the Arctic in the 50s and 60s with the construction of things like the distance early warning line

And, you know, it was a really massive Arctic presence. But again the U kind of backed off on that And what we seeing right now is a lot of nations and particularly Russia is developing that northern sea route that ability to move cargo from basically the region of the North Sea right around Norway across that Arctic route and come out through the Bering Sea

into the Pacific. And last year was record levels for them, and we're seeing them top that time and

time again. Plus, we're seeing a lot of exploration up there. One of the big issues that triggered the

United States was these Chinese vessels within the exclusive economic zone, the 200-mile zone

of northern Alaska and off the continental shelf, which extends a little further out from there

At 420 feet long and a displacement of 16,000 tons, the Healy is the larger of the two icebreakers

It was built as a research vessel for the Coast Guard. The Storys was actually a commercial ship

the Coast Guard bought, retrofitted, and now uses as a gap-filling medium icebreaker until the new

polar security cutters are ready to hit the water. Mercogliano says those future PSCs are an absolute

must and will be built with the help of both Canada and Finland as part of a deal called

the Ice Pact. But the Ice Pact is moving at glacial speeds. Work started on the Polar Sentinel this

spring. That ship will be the lead vessel in the polar security cutter class, but its delivery was

pushed back to 2030, and there's no guarantees it won't get pushed back again. For more reporting

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