Coast Guard Acquisitions: Further Cost and Affordability Analysis of Polar Fleet Needed

What GAO Found

The U.S. Coast Guard, a component within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), stated that it needs more polar icebreakers to meet its missions in the Arctic and Antarctic. This is, in part, because it currently has insufficient capacity to assure U.S. presence and reliable access to the Arctic.

Given the Arctic’s increased importance, the Coast Guard is working to maintain and expand its polar icebreaking fleet to meet its mission needs. It already studied and analyzed its needs for more than a decade. However, the Coast Guard faces challenges and open questions on its plans.

Maintaining the polar icebreaker fleet. The Coast Guard plans to continue using its two operational polar icebreakers, the Healy and the Polar Star, until it can design and build replacements. Both icebreakers are near or beyond their planned service lives, respectively, and require extensive maintenance. So, the Coast Guard is investing $172 million total in service life extension programs for both icebreakers.

The Coast Guard’s Polar Icebreakers, the Healy and Polar Star

Expanding the polar icebreaker fleet. The Coast Guard plans to expand the polar icebreaker fleet via near-term and long-term acquisitions to reach eight or nine new polar icebreakers to fill its Arctic capability gaps in the coming decades.

• Near term – To add another cutter to the Arctic sooner, the Coast Guard plans to purchase an existing, commercially available medium polar icebreaker. The Coast Guard’s goal is to be able to deploy it within 2 years from receiving funding, or by March 2026, after making some initial modifications. Coast Guard officials said that they do not have information on the current condition of the ship or the modifications it will make to reach full operational capability, such as potentially reconfiguring the helicopter pad.
  
  
  • Before receiving $125 million to purchase the icebreaker in fiscal year 2024, the Coast Guard developed two rough estimates and found that it would cost over $1 billion to purchase and convert a ship, prepare its permanent homeport in Alaska, and operate it for the first 7 years. However, the Coast Guard has yet to develop a detailed cost estimate including what modifications it will make to reach full operational capability to inform future budget requests. Coast Guard officials said they do not plan to develop one before purchasing it.

Without a more robust cost estimate for converting the commercially available polar icebreaker, the Coast Guard may be committing resources without knowing the full cost of its commitment. 

• Long term – The Coast Guard is acquiring up to three heavy polar icebreakers as a part of the Polar Security Cutter program. After significant delays maturing the design, the soonest the lead cutter may be operational is 2030. Coast Guard officials said that they are considering expanding the program by buying up to two more cutters. The Coast Guard is also considering whether to start another program to build a new class of medium polar icebreakers, known as Arctic Security Cutters.

Combined, these two programs and near-term efforts will help the Coast Guard transition from two to the eight or nine total polar icebreakers it seeks. However, the Coast Guard has open questions to answer such as the mix of cutters it will build and what buying, operating, and homeporting all of these new ships will cost.

Further, the Coast Guard continues to lack a polar icebreaker fleet analysis that examines the cost and sequencing of programs including how these efforts are affordable within its larger acquisition portfolio. Such an analysis would allow the Coast Guard to make informed decisions about initiating or expanding programs in the context of its larger acquisition portfolio. GAO previously identified that the Coast Guard needs to improve how it makes investment decisions.

Why GAO Did This Study

As GAO reported in July 2023, to begin addressing gaps in its polar icebreaker fleet, the Coast Guard is partnering with the Navy to procure three heavy polar icebreakers, known as Polar Security Cutters. The Coast Guard must complete other efforts and determine their costs to expand the polar fleet, such as for a new medium polar icebreaker program.

GAO was asked to examine the status of the Coast Guard’s efforts to address its near- and long-term gaps in polar icebreakers. This report discusses how the Coast Guard analyzed its polar icebreaking needs, options it considered to expand the future fleet, and open questions about the polar fleet expansion that the Coast Guard has yet to address.

For this report, GAO reviewed Coast Guard and DHS documentation as well as interviewed Coast Guard, DHS, and other agency officials with Arctic interests.