Ensign Zane Miagany, a marine science officer on the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, demonstrates use of bridge equipment to an officer from the Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier in July 2023. The crews conducted a passenger exchange with the CCGS Sir Wilfrid Laurier off the coast of Utqiagvik, Alaska.
THE WATCH STAFF
The United States’ largest and most technologically advanced polar icebreaker met up with a Canadian counterpart in the Beaufort Sea in August 2023, demonstrating the allies’ coordination and joint efforts in the Arctic region.
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy conducted joint operations with Canadian Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier and participated in a personnel exchange off the coast of Utqiagvik, Alaska, formerly known as Barrow.
The Healy’s commanding officer, Capt. Michele Schallip, hosted a Canadian delegation of Coast Guard and Arctic defense personnel aboard the 128-meter-long vessel, which can break through 1.4 meters of ice continuously at 3 knots. The ship, based in Seattle, was commissioned in 1999, according to the Coast Guard.
Protecting U.S. interests in the Arctic is a high priority for U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), and the Healy plays a significant role in upholding sovereign rights, promoting economic prosperity, and ensuring national security in the region.
The two countries’ crews also conducted joint exercises including formation steaming, boat operations, and flying the Laurier’s embarked helicopter.
The Laurier, whose home port is Victoria, British Columbia, is also an icebreaker at 83 meters long. Commissioned in 1986, the Canadian ship conducts scientific research in addition to buoy tending and ice escort missions.
Personnel exchanges and joint exercises like those engaged in by the Healy and the Laurier are an important part of both U.S. and Canadian strategy to achieve their national security objectives and demonstrate the nations’ close relationship, according to a Coast Guard news release.
The Healy is on a monthlong mission in support of the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) Arctic Mobile Observing System (AMOS). The AMOS is a collection of mobile sensors and systems that drift with the sea current and operate autonomously, collecting data on sea ice, thermodynamics and the circulation and evolution of the Arctic Ocean, according to an ONR fact sheet.
That mission is part of a larger five-month deployment for the Healy, which is one of the U.S. Coast Guard’s two icebreakers.
More U.S. icebreakers are planned to be built in the coming years as the Arctic warms because of a warming climate and the ice sheets retreat, opening the region to greater navigation and resource extraction.
The U.S. Coast Guard has ordered three Polar-class icebreakers with the first projected to be ready by 2025, according to Business Insider.
The National Strategy for the Arctic Region, released in October 2022, states that procuring more icebreakers is a priority. The value of the large, expensive ships is multidimensional. They can patrol the maritime border between the United States and Russia and track military activity. But icebreakers also have scientific value.
The Healy’s work for the ONR, in conjunction with the National Science Foundation, is one example of its versatility.
Aboard the Healy is 390 square meters of scientific laboratory space, electronic sensor systems, oceanographic winches and accommodations for up to 50 scientists, according to the U.S. Coast Guard website.
The ship is also capable of performing search and rescue operations, ship escort, environmental protection, and enforcement of laws and treaties.