What are your thoughts? Is the Coast Guard staffing crisis a bigger issue or the delays on getting new icebreakers?

my question is where is canada in this story. they have significantly more arctic coastline to take care of. Apparently they operate 21 icebreakers and as an ally of the US i wonder is maybe the US together with them could have some kind of joint arctic presence.

Polar Star: "please let me die" US Coast Guard: "it's time for your annual antarctic trip honey"

my friend worked on a HUGE icebreaker just one month ago. We are both swedish and it is a swedish military ice breaker from the 1960s. The ship is called YMER and its frickin epic.

9:15 Hull cuts are a major engineering evolution but not unusual. Every nuclear submarine that goes through a reactor overhaul gets hull cuts and that steel is much tougher than the typical ship hull. This episode calls attention to the long history of under funding the US Coast Guard despite their critical mission.

Russia needs icebreakers. They have a number of Arctic ports. The US has only two ice ports in Alaska.

When I was in the Coast Guard back in the 70s, while stationed on the Northwind we used to call the Star and the Sea building 10 and building 11. Simply because they were always in port for repairs. I see that much has not changed.

Great video. I did the McMurdo trip way back in 2002. Recruitment/retention is the biggest challenge of every service right now. Historically, a poor economy helps with that, but we're not seeing it currently for a lot of reasons.

Hey guys, us here in Finland build top quality icebreakers.

This was incredibly interesting, and I learned a lot. Watching them pull out that chunk of the hull like a jigsaw piece (10:10) was absolutely insane. Thanks for the great video! ☮

“How did the US lose the icebreaker race?” Simple, they never had an interest in competing

Learning about the Russian icebreaker that was contracted to clear the rout to McMurdo Station, really takes me back to that time were Russia actually had normal, even good relations with the west, but now that time feels so long ago.

I live in Murmansk, Kola peninsula. North Trade Route starts here! We have never freezing port - because of warm Gulf Stream.

On a side note, you can actually take a trip to the North Pole on a russian nuclear icebreaker. With helicopter excursions, zodiac boats and all that. It's pricey, though, as it starts from $25k per person.

I helped build USCGC Healy (WAGB 20). I worked in the shop that cut the hull plates and a lot of the structural steel.

I just had this discussion with my dad, E4, yesterday. Thanks for making this.

We were never in a race. We just ignored the needs of the Coast Guard and the Artic sea lanes, as well as letting our ability to build ships degrade.

Learning something new while working, thanks NWYT!

I wonder, if the US really wants/needs new icebreakers, why have they not tried contracting Norwegian/Swedish and/or Finnish shipyards to build some? All three have significant expertise in using and building icebreakers. Norway and Finland are also in NATO, and thus allies of the USA, and Sweden will, in time, also join NATO officially. Is there a clause in US law prohibiting them from doing so?

We (the USA) don’t need to remain relevant in today’s world. All I(a politician) need to do is be re-elected. As long as I can keep my face in the trough and keep my congressional health care (which I will make sure no citizen ever gets) I’m happy. I’ll just keep promoting, or fighting whichever headline generating social issue will keep my Sheeple happy. I’ll have a list of books to ban and fight against the School District’s plan to install a Same Sex Cat Box @ Brand X Middle School. God Bless America!

There is an easy solution for this. US officials should ring to Finland and order some. (About 80% of world's icebreakers are designed in Finland and 60% are built there.) Americans get their vessels and Finns get the money.

I'd have to say that they are both vital for the US. Thanks again for another great video! I was just thinking about Canada's need for ships in the Arctic yesterday, so this was a very timely video for me.

The problem with personal is that anyone with the skills to fill these positions is probably going to be hired in the private sector for more money

USA: We don't need more icebreakers. We have global warming on our side.

You showed a Canadian ship as American a couple times. It had the red maple leaf. If Russia bought Canadian ice breakers….. buy or contract out the ice breaker service. If you stopped the military stupidity of screaming at recruits you’d have more applicants

So Wise , Thank You .. A fine example of the short sightedness of oir (u.. S. ) government

America’s been losing a lot of things lately. Just glad we’re starting to realize we’ve been losing our damn minds for over a decade.

We have patrol ships in the New Zealand navy that are designed to break through ice. Because some of the patrol ships often patrol Antarctica.

my thoughts? is that military requirements are too high for getting too little out of them. a budget of $890 billion, but you can make more money at burgerking.

As a Seattleite, it would be a wonder to see the Polar Sea take to the waves again- and at a price of $250 Million, it's more cost-effective, and if both Star, Sea, Healy, and up to 3 of the Polar Security Cutters enter service, 2 In-Service, 2 Winding-Down, and 2 Preparing for Deployment will suffice our Arctic Needs cleanly for the next 15-25 years. At one point, we used to have 9 major Icebreakers (8 Saltwater, and 1 Great Lakes), that could take-on the world. Now, we have a Medium, a Heavy, the (smaller) 2nd Mackinaw, and a bunch of little ones. Bring back the Polar Sea, and get the Polar Security cutters underway!

There's so many ridiculous "World's 1st" born of the cold war when everyone was turning anything and everything into another "race" I'm just hoping that we win the "1st talking dog", "1st cordless TV remote that's truly impossible to lose" or "1st cellphone charger cable that doesn't short out of the by phone plug after a few months". You know, the important races ...

"Their main mission is to break ice" Yup, pretty much what I was thinking lol

11:00 no surprise there, people don't like to be treated like shit

thank you for using my video on Oden🙏🏼 very nicely done⚓️

Keep making awesome videos man!

Its wierd that even Finland has more icebreakers than the USA and we are a tiny nation in comparison

Opening the sides of vessels is common during overhaul.

There’s a mandate from congress for the DoD to enhance its arctic operational capabilities and the lack of any specific requirements means it is utterly ignored

You gotta love the level of incompetence of the us government. Nothing like waiting until the last minute to address a problem.

The blockage of the Suez did NOT "bring global trade to a halt". It put a serious dent in that trade, but that was only ONE of the major trade routes in the world. Certainly had ZERO effect on most of the global trade routes in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, or the majority of the Atlantic routes (North and South America to MOST of Europe, MOST of Africa, were unaffected, for examples - or Japan/China/Korea and such to the Middle East for OIL or to North/South America AT ALL). There is more shipping through the Straights of Malacca (next to Singapore) than ANY OTHER area of the world - and shipping volumes through that straits blows BOTH Suez AND the Panama Canal, well, out of the water. Quite a bit wider than both canals COMBINED, yet more crowded.

Are used to live in Juneau, Alaska, and have toured both of those icebreakers. They were often dock in Juneau. Sometimes they would have tours.

Coast guard is hard asf to join, they accept like 500 outta 4500 applicants each year.. almost 1/10

I was on the polar star and it was actually pretty fun

Both problems are actually very easy to solve, IF the US Goverment is willing to PAY the higher wages and subsidize education of the crew, and PAY for buidling new icebreakers. Meanwhile, the US Goverment is spending zillions on a multitude of other completely non strategic stuff...

Building additional icebreakers would be an excellent way for Canada to increase defense spending while at the same time contributing to the domestic economy.

Russia once even considered turning an old Typhoon ballistic missile submarine into a freighter to support some very remote stations. The reasoning was that for particularly long but low-cargo volume routes it would be cheaper to use such a specialised vessel over having to keep the entire route ice free. But I doubt this would be a viable option for the US, as their routes in Alaska have a much higher traffic volume. It might be an option for the antarctic, but a SSBN needs even more specialised personnel than a regular icebreaker. I think Russia only even considered this because the shrinking of the navy after the collapse of the Soviet union meant they had submarines and trained personnel just lying around

Im happy we have 2 Canadian heavy ice breakers on order and also Davie Shipyard (Quebec) bought Helsinki Shipyard making Canada the first ice breaker builder on this planet.

How about talking about the - the Jones Act making the US shipbuilding industry the most highly protected and inefficient shipyards in the world; a billion bucks a piece for icebreakers is only realistic because there is no real competition when they have to be built in USA - Aiviq being “proposed” for purchase by 2 congressmen who just happened to have one thing in common; the owner being their biggest campaign contributors - Aiviq being unfit for most service, major design flaws that lead to them grounding a billion dollar Shell rig, Shell consequently cancelling orders for 2 further ships

Yeah, the years of neglect by the US due too its perceived superiority in its own backyard seem to be coming back with a vengeance. Once a chain of training, maintenance and shipbuilding is broken it's really hard to get it back up running smoothly.

for those commenting about Canada helping, The artic is one of the only places Canada and the US are not "allies". But they agree to do nothing about it as keeping the status quo is better then running Canada-US relations. For context the US broke the Arctic Cooperation agreement in 2005, in 2019 U.S. State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said, “We view Canada’s claim that the waters of the Northwest Passage are internal waters of Canada as inconsistent with international law,” which is funny cause the US isn't even apart of UNCLOS so they cant really talk to the Law of the sea if they don't recognise it. So for are help some concessions would have to be made regarding the US's view on Canadian sovereignty

America should have more ice breakers this is ridiculous

A great video!

Question is... Is there need to have a passage? In Russia they transport their oil by ship, and USA uses pipelines

Our industry and allies will bridge the gap.

Finnish companies have designed 80% icebreakers and manufactured 60 % build in Finnish shipyards

Russia need icebreakers far more than anybody else

To bad all the funds that could be used to update non essential but potentially important US maritime operations, is being sent to other countries

Another 10 years there will not be a need for ice breakers. By the way, although the arctic (northwest passage) is an international waters way it is located in Canada

They are old and we need more of them on the great lakes.

ngl, us aint really breaking though ice all the time, but russians kinda are surrounded by it so they had more opportunity

Royal Dutch Shell😢 sad to hear that, unfortunately they left the Netherlands and are no longer "Royal Dutch"

the reason why no one was t to work in the cost guard is they do t want to be yelled at.. they technically are not a military branch.....

You used false advertising as you didn't do anything like a comparison. If you wished to make this video put a title about the United States ice breaker fleet.

I think if im captaining a US fishing boat or ice breaker. I'm bluffing that i have an escort. One that doesnt need to break ice but sails below it.

I've done work as a civilian contractor employee on both the polar star and polar sea

Are these Artic trade routes better for transporting food. I figure the cold temperature can help with food preservation.

The US should order 8 Icebreakers in Finland Arctech. 6 Heavy and 2 Midsize ones. If they where smart around 2012 the have rented long-term 3 Russian Ice breakers Diesel ones. Today that is not longer possible.

Money can be 🖨 but I guess even the USA cannot print humans 😂

Finland is now U.S partner and we have best icebreakers

I'll never miss being on the Healy

Healy broke through 24 feet thick ice. I welded on its hull and especially that Bow. The last 4 numbers of my social security number is stamped all over it. Its not medium. Its heavy duty. .

With Iceland being a non military NATO member I feel like Iceland should be expected to contribute a bit above their weight class in this particular area.

Easy solution, I think putting icebreaker hulls on all ships going to, the antarctic

Thought this would be a Meme video ending in 30 seconds saying "Climate change lulz". lol. Awesome Work!

One major problem, least years ago and probably today, getting into the Coast Guard. By that they didn't have many openings, and to my knowledge they still limit how many they take in. Its why it's easier to join one of the other branches. From those who need people badly to not as bad follows usually like this, with the Marines usually at the top, followed by the Army, Navy, Airforce, and then National Guard. Coast Guard is dead last just because they limit their openings based on time frames and other reasons. While the other branches can fluctuate in recruitment drives, this list tends to be the average. At the time I was joining the navy years ago, the Coast Guard was only taking 13 people as that was their cutoff at that time. They wouldn't have another opening for months if not the next year. The navy had closer to 20ish counting myself, the army and marines damn near on par with each other with maybe 30 a piece with National Guard having 1. However, the National Guard did have more leading up to this with approximately 20ish, the guy who signing in had showed a day or two after, but still had to swear through the Army and go through boot camp like the others before him. He would just be catching the same bus with all the Army and National Guard recruits to head to boot camp in a few weeks following the swearing in. As for the Airforce, think maybe a little over a dozen, but they were expecting another 30 to show up in a week or two. But point is that most times the Coast Guard doesn't have recruitment drives like that often if at all. And looking at this vid now that might change or might not.

What about the R/V Nathaniel B. Palmer? Its owned by a US company and contracted by NSF?

navy personnel to be transferred to coast guard since u.s. navy do have to traverse northern route when; as such for time being transfer few naval personnel to do the job; create northern route command or such; to work wiht coast guard on paper; and build icebreaker for navy to lease to coast guard; to operate; under naval personnel; with panama cannal blocked; going tip of south is one option but going north is another; options should be left to open; we can always go other way;

Americans in general like new, shiny, glorified, headliners of systems. We don't like maintenance and maintenance-like things. So, we can spend $450 billion on another carrier (unneeded), but cut budget on maintenance. We buy billion dollar F-35s, then leave half in the hangar for lack of parts. And we buy more shiny new war machines without a mission need while doing without the heavy shipping, icebreakers, and other accoutraments to get those war toys to where theyre needed. We think like politicians and MBAs.

Yeah we need to buy ship for this one in gernation acident

As I recall, the US has basically a law prohibiting purchase of non-US military vessels, including icebreakers. At one point Finnish industry built icebreakers to that time Soviet Union. I suspect those were copied for the present fleet of Russian ones. Germany ("West-") also bought one from Finland, but it was leased back to Finland and operated by a Finnish crew in Northern Baltic and Gulf of Bothnia, "Unless needed in the Southern Baltic". Another specialty from old news is that Finland has an indoor iIce Breaking Laboratory, supposedly the only one in the world. But no chance selling icebreakers to the US.

With Canadas new “Harry De-Wolfe” Arctic patrol (ice breaking) vessels, we have your North! Canadian 🇨🇦 Veteran

I worked for the clown college that was contracted out to build and design the PSC (Polar Security Cutter) electrical systems. Massively over budget and behind schedule. Don’t bet on any of those ships seeing water.

They have been talking about it for years.

Finland and Sweden have 14 icebreakers. The US shouldn’t worry about it anymore now that they have joined NATO.

1:04 WTF? Is he well? 😂

Soon there's no Ice to break

There's always something laugh-out-loud funny in your narration. This time there was a very strange one. At 10:25, the Closed Caption says "The piece of the hull was put back in place, and duct taped ... or welded." However, you removed that sentence in the audio.

American ice-breakers wouldn't provide deterrence; A few F-16s would.

I would love to work in coast guard

Its not a race when only one is competing

American icebreaker design is based on horsepower, brute force. For example, Finnish modern diesel-elctric icebreakers are more powerful than those built in early 1970's, but with less engine power and a fraction of operating cost. US has laws and regulations protecting American shipbuilding industry. The US government cannot purchase other than American-made icebreakers. The cost of an American-made icebreaker is 3 times the costs of a the most modern and most powerful Finnish-made Polaris-class modern Icebreaker. Polaris class has dual-fuel engines (LNG/diesel).

If the U.S. properly funded the U.S. Coast Guard we would not have this problem.

Canadian Coast Guard meanwhile: bruh, got problem?

I think that the us is doing the icebreaker all wrong by using the coast guard because if they were civilian but governmentally manned and owned they could get the number of sailors down because they would only need a crew similar in size to a merchant vessel. Just look at Sweden and Finland they use this method and they have more icebreakers than the us because they require less sailors for one vessel. Also they should probably have looked to Finland for the actual icebreakers because they have extensive experience building and designing icebreakers.

classical case of austerity

They're in a different environment. The US also has a lot more alligator farms, orange groves, and pineapple plantations

Why is it so hard for the coast guard to attract people? Could they hire Canadians or other foreigners?

The US could close and overcome any gap if they wanted too using their superior industrial capacity.

The problem is that the US and Canada haven't joined into a European Union-like confederation yet.

This is like asking, ‘did the giraffe lose the tree climbing contest?’ Of course the US doesn’t have many icebreakers, it doesn’t need them and it would be a giant waste of money.