U.S. Coast Guard Arctic Presence Goes Up in Smoke As Icebreaker Healy Suffers Fire

By Malte Humpert (gCaptain) –

U.S. Coast Guard presence in the Arctic has taken another hit. Icebreaker USCGC Healy suffered an engineering compartment fire at the end of July during its annual summer Arctic patrol. It is now returning from its aborted patrol on a single engine in an effort to attempt repairs. 

The fire reportedly damaged a starboard transformer as a result of which the starboard engine remains inoperable. 

The Coast Guard’s other icebreaker, the 50-year old Polar Star, is not available during summer as it is undergoing a service life extension program at the Mare Island Dry Dock in California.

Healy departed from Seattle for its summer Arctic patrol on June 12, 2024 taking it through the Bering Strait into the Chukchi Sea. It was traveling in Canadian waters near Banks Island around July 25 when it experienced an engineering space fire. 

The sequence of events was broadly confirmed around two weeks later on August 7 by Vice Commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral Kevin E. Lunday during a talk at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC.

“Coast Guard Cutter Healy, one of our only two icebreakers, had just begun her summer patrol and was up north of Alaska and the Chukchi Sea. It had an electrical fire in the engineering spaces; she’s now having to return to home port to try and affect repairs.”

Just four years prior, in August 2020, Healy similarly suffered from an engine room fire damaging the starboard propulsion motor and shaft, also ending its summer Arctic patrol. Fortunately, the Coast Guard had originally purchased a spare propulsion unit when the vessel was constructed in 1997.

This time replacement parts may be harder to come by according to Lunday

“Most of the machinery systems aboard are antiquated and for some there aren’t even parts. We’re going to work as hard as we can to repair it and try to preserve the rest of the patrol but that’s in doubt. And that’s a concern because if Healy can’t continue that patrol the U.S. will have no surface presence in the Arctic this summer.”

Vessel tracking sites show USCGC Healy turning around on July 26. It is expected back at its home port of Seattle on August 14.

Fortunately the vessel had not been deeper into the Arctic and was operating in mostly ice-free waters of an Arctic ally.

In contrast, last summer’s voyage took Healy into more challenging waters adjacent to Russia’s Northern Sea Route when it traversed the Arctic Ocean for a joint operation with Norway’s KV Svalbard Arctic patrol ship.

The Coast Guard’s attempts to rejuvenate and expand its icebreaker capabilities continue to face ongoing delays. Little progress has been made on a contract with Halter Marine, now Bollinger Shipyards, signed in 2019, for three Polar Security Cutters. Construction on the initial vessel has yet to start. 

During the Brookings Institution event Admiral Lunday stated the Coast Guard hoped to finalize the design process by the end of the year.

The Coast Guard is also looking to purchase the available commercial icebreaker Aiviq, as a stop-gap measure. $125m in funding was allocated by Congress but no concrete steps have been announced. 

Neither the press office of the Coast Guard Headquarters in DC, nor the public affairs office of the Pacific Area provided additional information or responded to requests for comment.