Obama provides funding for icebreaker
The President wants to ensure that the Coast Guard is able to maintain a surface presence in the Arctic.
President Barack Obama’s 2013 budget proposal contains $8 million (€6,16 million) so that the Coast Guard can initiate acquisition of a new polar icebreaker to secure the Arctic present well into the future, National Defense Magazine reports.
Lack of sophisticated icebreaker capacity has for years been a challenge to U.S. presence in the waters around Alaska.
The budget proposal comes just weeks after the Alaskan town of Nome got short of fuel and had to get extra supplies with the help of a Russian ice-classed oil-tanker that the U.S. Coast Guard had a hard time breaking the ice for.
Today, the Coast Guard has only one operational icebreaker, the “Healy” which is a medium-duty icebreaker, reports Alaskan Dispatch. Earlier, eight icebreakers were sailing for the Coast Guard in Arctic waters.
In addition to a new icebreaker, the Obama 2013 budget proposal includes finding to recapitalize and expand helicopter hangars and aviation refueling facilities in Alaska.
