The Coast Guard needs to expand its surface, aviation, communications, and situational awareness capabilities for Arctic operations to fulfill its role in the region, the service says in a new plan outlining how it will implement its Arctic strategy.
The Arctic Strategic Outlook Implementation Plan released on Thursday comes days after the White House released the Implementation Plan for the National Strategy for the Arctic Region that outlines dozens of activities to achieve domain awareness, presence, and working with allies and partners (Defense Daily, Oct. 23).
The new Coast Guard plan contains 14 initiatives, each with action items, that weave through three lines of effort that guide the service’s 2019 Arctic Strategic Outlook. The lines of effort include enhancing capabilities in the region, strengthening the rules-based order, and innovate and adapt to promote resiliency and prosperity.
The Coast Guard currently operates to polar icebreakers, the medium-ship Healy, and the heavy-ship Polar Star. Bollinger Shipyards is designing the first new heavy polar icebreaker for the service in decades and is expected to build at least three of the new polar security cutters.
The service is also seeking funding from Congress for a commercially-available icebreaker that could be used to help fill gaps in current missions.
As part of the initiative to expand its surface and related support infrastructure in the Arctic, the implementation plan calls for fleet mix and requirements documents for the “optimal mix of surface assets to enable year-round assured Arctic access.” These assets include aircraft and sensors, diver support, and the ability to land a small boat at remote locations.
Outside of its icebreakers, the Coast Guard does not have ice-hardened cutters.
The Coast Guard also needs to develop its logistical support and personnel competencies for Arctic missions, and conduct homeporting analyses for cutters and crews, the plan says.
The Coast Guard also needs to expand its aviation capabilities in the Arctic, to include potentially increasing its fleet of Lockheed Martin [LMT]-built MH-60 helicopters “to support Arctic aviation deployments,” the plan says. It also calls for the ability to fold the main and tail-rotor blades on the MH-60s, a key requirement if the service is to be able to hangar the aircraft on its cutters and help protect them from the elements.
The Coast Guard has demonstrated the blade-fold/tail-fold shipboard capability for the MH-60 but plans here await the completion of a program plan for the helicopters. In 2021, the Coast Guard ordered 42 new MH-60 hulls as part of a service life extension program for the medium-range aircraft.
Other aviation-related action items include assessing possible ship and shore-based unmanned aircraft system opportunities, and “a reliable pole-to-pole communication voice solution on all aircraft stationed” in the Alaskan maritime region, the plan says.
The desire to expand communications capabilities in the Arctic region is not new and the plan calls for an evaluation of current capabilities to includes studies, exercises, and tests to identify gaps. Satellite communications, both geostationary and non-geostationary, are needed to improve regional communications, it says. Improved land-based communications are also needed, the plan says.
There is a baker’s dozen action items to improve maritime domain awareness in the Arctic, to includes assessing the use of unmanned and space systems to monitor weather and to detect and track maritime activity. Some of the other items are improving connectivity between assets and long-range communications, more aircraft and cutter patrols, working with the services’ Research and Development Center, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, and DHS Centers of Excellence on technology solutions, including space-based solutions.