U.S. starts building first polar-class icebreaker in 40 years

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The ice in the Arctic is melting and opening new navigation routes, with Russia responding with a fleet of 44 icebreakers and China developing its own fleet although they are nowhere near polar regions.

The ice in the Arctic is melting and opening new navigation routes, with Russia responding with a fleet of 44 icebreakers and China developing its own fleet although they are nowhere near polar regions.

"We have to get in the game," Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in Seattle on Thursday.

"We are an Arctic nation without Arctic resources," added Murkowski who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The senator received word Wednesday from U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz that construction on a new cutter is at last underway.

V.T. Halter Marine., Inc of Pascagoula, Mississippi -- pretty far from the Arctic -- has been given a $655 million contract to build the cutter.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-starts-building-first-polar-class-icebreaker-in-40-years/ar-BBWiszj

[Haggis for Breakfast]

1. This is long overdue.

We HAD icebreakers once, but funding did not keep up with the need to maintain a presence in the Arctic. A serious lapse in thinking and consideration of our national security.