A few days ago Alexey Rakhmanov, head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation statedthat the United States will need at least 7-8 years to create powerful icebreakers, and they will cost three times more. His statement, as usual, caused a reaction from the patriotic public, mainly boiling down to joyful statements that the Americans would not be able to build this icebreaker fleet at all.
We'll have to disappoint the public, and clarify the words of Alexei Leonidovich. Americans can't just build icebreakers. They have already begun to build them: one has already been fully financed and started to build (while the order of components for the bookmark is underway). In four years, the United States will have one brand new icebreaker in service, which is also suitable for solving military problems, and the second will be completed, and two existing ones will also be in service. And this will be just the beginning.
Let's analyze the specifics of American icebreaker construction.
American icebreaking problem
Unlike Russia, which has almost three hundred thousand inhabitants in Murmansk alone and which has a huge number of complex objects and enterprises in the Arctic, developed commercial shipping and the most important line of sea communications - the Northern Sea Route, the United States has nothing of the kind. Their largest settlement in the Arctic Circle has fewer than 5,000 people and essentially no economy. There is no extraction of resources, no merchant shipping. The difference in approaches to the development of the Arctic is detailed in the article "Arctic Front. Regarding Russia's movement to the north".
Therefore, the tasks of American icebreakers have always been extremely limited. Basically, they boiled down to escorting supply vessels to American scientific stations in Antarctica, on the other side of the Earth, and in the Arctic - to the delivery of scientific teams and rescue operations. Rarely did they have to lead a lonely ship through the ice, hurrying to bring something to some small village that they did not manage to bring there by open water in the summer.
Also in the case of military icebreakers, one of the secondary tasks was the implementation of military provocations against our country on the Northern Sea Route: usually it was to pass through Soviet territorial waters in the Vilkitsky Strait under the cover of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (which the United States, by the way, did not ratified) the so-called right of innocent passage, which in such circumstances was not applicable.
The Americans tried to do this in the 60s, but nature turned out to be stronger, and their weak military icebreakers could not overcome the ice.
In 1976 and 1978, the US Coast Guard included two "heavy" (according to the American classification) icebreakers: "Polar Star" ("Polar Star") and "Polar Sea" ("Polar Sea"). From then until the end of the 90s, all the icebreaking tasks of America were solved by them. Provocations were excluded from their list, since the "cold war" made it possible to fight the USSR somewhere on the periphery of world politics, and they coped with the rest. The ships turned out to be successful and powerful, only the excessive complexity of their design let down.
In 2000, Healy entered service - a large icebreaker with a displacement of 16,000 tons, but with a small thickness of ice to overcome - 1.6 meters, and as a result of this limited suitability. So, "Healy" does not go to Antarctica, and, due to the small thickness of the ice to be overcome, it is classified as "medium", although the more "penetrating" "Polar Star" and "Polar Sea" are considered "heavy" with a displacement of 13,200 tons. However, “Healy” reached the North Pole when it became necessary in 2015, and without any problems.
And in 2011, due to a serious accident at the main power plant (GEM), the Polar Sea was forever put on hold. Polar Star and Polar Sea were designed for 30 years of operation. At the beginning of the 2000s, these terms came to an end. But no one was going to change the ships. America began its gigantic war, the episodes of which were the entry of troops into Afghanistan and the capture of Iraq, and the money was needed for more "important" things than icebreakers.
This is how the epic of keeping the Polar Star in good working order began. Using the Polar Sea as a "donor" of spare parts, the Coast Guard managed to operate a ship that was out of service for all periods of operation in the critical Antarctic direction. The Arctic was "held" by "Healy". There were no and no problems with the latter, the ship is not old, but the Polar Star was handed over more and more every year, and its repairs turned out to be more and more difficult. By the mid-2010s, the Polar Star was the "living corpse" of a ship, serving on which was simply life-threatening.
In 2013, the Department of Homeland Security, to which the Coast Guard is subordinate, realizing that the days of the Polar Star are numbered, issued a special statement that the United States urgently needed six new icebreakers: at least three heavy and three medium.
But there was no money. I had to stay that way, especially since in case of a critical breakdown it was possible to hire some icebreakers in Russia.
In 2014, this fallback was no longer possible, and the US was again left with Polar Star. The ship by this moment was falling apart in the truest sense of the word.
The turning point was 2018. Firstly, the press got the details of how one of the recent icebreaker expeditions to Antarctica went. After several breakdowns of the power plant, due to which the ship was on the verge of losing speed, a new emergency was added - a serious hull leak. The leak led to the flooding of the engine room, loss of progress and repairs right at sea, during which they had to fight for survivability and weld the hull rotted from old age. The Americans then managed to solve the problems due to the fact that they carried with them everything that could be useful for repairs, and due to the extraordinary efforts of personnel who knew well where and what their ship could break. There was a threat that the icebreaker would soon be unable to support the Americans in Antarctica. And as a result of this, the risk that you will have to ask Russia, which at that time the United States tried to exert strong pressure, for help.
The second problem for the Coast Guard was the intention of the Navy to conduct a military provocation against Russia. The military intended to do with the help of the Polar Star what did not work out in the 60s: go through Russian territorial waters and show the Russians who is the boss in the Arctic. But the "exercise on freedom of navigation" had to be canceled: the then Commander of the Coast Guard, Admiral Paul Zukunft, said that the icebreaker could break at any moment, and then Russia would have to turn to Russia to save it. It would have been a political catastrophe and the Americans retreated.
These two episodes did what the US Coast Guard could not do for decades: they convinced Congress that it was time to solve the icebreaking problem. And Congress allocated money, immediately and without bargaining, paying for one icebreaker, repairing the Polar Star, and even giving the Coast Guard a small reserve for the second ship.
Then there was a tender, and in 2019 the construction of a series of American icebreakers began.
American icebreaker program
Initially, long before the financing of icebreakers became a reality, the Coast Guard leaned towards the advanced project of the Fincanteri Mariette Marine corporation, which long ago announced its developments and proposals for a promising icebreaker. The company was supposed to be the construction contractor, but VT Halter Marine won the tender for the construction. It was with her that a contract was signed for the construction of the lead ship of the series.
According to the contract, the company must complete the design of the ship by the end of 2021, order and receive all the components that are necessary for the laying of the ship, cut the steel and lay the ship.
It must be handed over in 2024. This will be the year when the United States will have a new heavy icebreaker. In addition to the full payment for the construction of the ship, Congress also allocated money for the so-called life extension program for the old man "Polar Star": the ship will be very seriously repaired in several stages and will be able to serve at least until the construction of the second icebreaker of the new series in the USA. This work is already underway. By 2024, the United States will again have three icebreakers: a brand new heavy icebreaker, repaired by tens of millions of dollars, Polar Star and Healy. Another ship will be under construction. After the second is completed, the Polar Star will most likely be decommissioned. But by then the US will have two new heavy icebreakers and one medium Healy in service. If everything goes according to plan, then another ship will be under construction by that time.
In January 2019, the new commander Karl Schultz said in an interview that the minimum number of ships that the Coast Guard needs are three icebreakers, and six ships would be sufficient. Taking into account the fact that Polar Star still does not last long, this meant that it was necessary to build five more, of which at that time only one was fully funded.
At the end of 2019, as the budget for 2020 was being finalized, clouds began to gather over the second icebreaker in the series. Trump, who previously personally launched the icebreaking program, needed to raise funds for another project he promised in the elections - a wall on the border with Mexico. Then there was talk about a serious reduction in a number of programs, among which it was proposed to include the rearmament of the Coast Guard. But in the end it worked out, and Congress allocated part of the money for the second ship.
At the moment, $ 1, 169 billion has been allocated and spent for the program. That's just $ 121 million less than it takes to build two icebreakers, but without US government-controlled military equipment and weapons. And if we take into account all the costs, including even the training of the crew and preparation of the base, it turns out that the first icebreaker was paid in full in advance, and 130 million were allocated for the second, for which you can start ordering components. The reality of spending is somewhere in between, figuratively speaking, we can assume that the Americans have financed one and a half icebreakers, one of which is already under construction.
It is impossible to say for sure when the Americans will actually lay down the second ship, it will depend on funding, but in the financial plan of the program, the last tranche for it belongs to 2024. Since, according to the published report of the US Congressional Research Service, the number of heavy icebreakers tentatively planned for construction is three units, it can be safely assumed that in 2024 the Americans plan to finish financing the third icebreaker. And this means that they plan to build the whole three much earlier than this ten-year period ends. Thus, we can safely guarantee that the United States by the end of the decade has four icebreakers capable of going, for example, to the North Pole, of which only one, "Healy", will have restrictions on the thickness of ice that can be overcome. The rest of the three can only be stopped by really thick ice, presumably significantly thicker than two meters. American problems with icebreakers will be solved in this case.
The question on the second three is still open. The option of building three medium icebreakers plus three heavy ones in the first series is being studied, while, perhaps, these will be simplified versions of heavy icebreakers (in order to save money).
Technical specifics and differences from the Russian approach
For Russia, icebreakers are a tool for developing its economy. American icebreakers are a tool for maintaining American influence. This dictates significant differences in approaches to ship design. American ships are warships, and the Coast Guard's cheerful red and white paint job should not mislead anyone.
Of the cost of the icebreaker, almost a third is various military equipment that will allow the ship to be used in the interests of the US Navy, receive any intelligence information from any combat unit of the US Navy, give the received intelligence to the US Navy, ensure the use of weapons by other combat units and put various types of radio interference. There is no precise clarity on weapons yet. The first studies from "Finkanteri" provided for either an unarmed ship, or a ship with 4 machine guns of 12.7 mm caliber. But now, it seems, some heavier system will be "registered" on the ship. The ship has a hangar for a helicopter, infrastructure for divers, the ability to equip a command post, possibly the ability to carry underwater vehicles and ensure their use. This is a completely different ship than our icebreakers.
In order to reduce the cost of infrastructure and universalization of the ship, the Americans did not even consider its atomic option, but they do not need it, they are not going to drive any caravans of ships through the ice. Moreover, their ships promise to be quite heavy - 23,400 tons. This is almost double that of the Polar Star, and only two thousand tons less than the standard displacement of our newest Arctic. For comparison: our Project 23550 icebreaking patrol ships will have a displacement of 9,000 tons.
The power plant of the ship, built around giant diesel generators with Caterpillar engines, will be about 45,000 hp, which, of course, does not reach the level of nuclear ships, but is already quite close to them. This is enough for the Americans, they do not need the speed of ice passage, nor their maximum complete splitting, they can bypass thick hummocks and look for places where the ice is thinner, because a caravan of tankers and bulk carriers will not follow them. The ship will be equipped with a variety of crane equipment and places for the crew and passengers for a total of 186 people. This is in its purest form a ship of presence - and, in parallel with trips to Antarctica, this is how it will be used.
If you listen to the words of Admiral Schultz, it will become absolutely clear that the Americans are going to actively harm us on the Northern Sea Route with their icebreakers. Otherwise, it makes no sense for them to have six units that the Coast Guard wants to have in the final. Even three for them will be a lot: two heavy ones and "Healy" would be enough. But the United States, having no opportunity to compete with us in the peaceful development of the Arctic region, is going to seriously complicate our economic activity with its provocations. And this is where every ship built is needed.
In addition to these icebreakers, the United States has three more small ships (no more than 6,000 tons), which are used by scientific organizations for research in the Arctic. Together with them, the United States today has 5 icebreakers. There will be six in 2024.
So, in a sense, the Americans are closer to the icebreaker fleet than A. Rakhmanov said.
It remains for the sake of interest to clarify the issue with the price.
The cost of building three new icebreakers for the United States is one billion eight hundred twenty five million dollars. If we add here military equipment and weapons, then two billion three hundred seventy-one million dollars. Average $ 790 million per ship. In terms of rubles at the rate of the Central Bank, this is fifty-five billion three hundred million rubles per ship. For comparison: "Arctic" costs fifty billion. She, of course, has a nuclear power plant. And the Americans have military electronics that we can't even imagine. At the same time, even a recalculation of prices not at the rate of the Central Bank, but at purchasing power parity, will not give a seven- or eight-fold difference.
This is how things really stand with American icebreakers: there are only a few years left before the appearance of new icebreakers in the United States. And before they appear at our coast - too. And this will not cost the Americans any fantastic means.
However, they can also dramatically increase the scale of their program.
Trump Memorandum
On June 9, 2020, US President Donald Trump signed a memorandum that demonstrates much more serious intentions. First, according to Trump, the United States will still study the possibility of building a nuclear icebreaker. Secondly, there are prospects for an increase in the number of ships under construction.
The memorandum requires considering how many ships are really needed for the Americans to fight for the Arctic, and requires expanding the capabilities of using ships "for national security purposes."
In addition to the possible expansion of the icebreaking program, the memorandum requires studying the possibility of equipping at least two bases in the Arctic, as well as deploying ships at bases in other countries.
Trump is demanding a powerful icebreaker fleet by 2029. Taking into account the already ongoing program, we can say that the first step has already been taken by the Americans.
Forecast for the future
And we need to prepare for American provocations. Two patrol icebreakers of Project 23550, which are currently being built, are very “in place” and will be commissioned on time. Of course, these ships are significantly smaller than the American ones, and, perhaps, the Americans will even arm their icebreakers no worse or stronger than we do (obviously, our patrol icebreakers will not have any containers with "Calibers", in more detail - here). But this is not important, it is important for us that we can control them near our territorial waters by attaching a patrol ship to them, and at a greater distance, with greater ice thickness, aviation can follow them.
Project 97P border icebreakers will also be useful, which need to be maintained in good working order and operational condition.
We also need a clear vision of how to respond to their provocations. For example, their icebreaker "cuts" the path through neutral waters, passing several miles in ours. This is a typical scenario of an American provocation under the guise of the right of innocent passage. What to do in such a situation? Fire? But this is a disproportionate answer, and the situation, frankly speaking, is ambiguous from a legal point of view. In response to this, they do not shoot. To do nothing? But then such things will become the norm, and Americans will do it every day.
Walk through their territorial waters in return? But you have to answer more or less immediately. What is clear is that you need to worry about such things in advance.
But the increase in the construction of military icebreakers, apparently, is not worth it. Until the scale of the problems that the Americans can create for us with their ships is not clear, it’s not worth it for sure.
Taking into account the time for the entry of American icebreakers, we have time for preparation, and we must use it correctly: soon the Arctic will become very "hot". The new American icebreakers are direct evidence of this.
