With the Arctic itself heating up thanks to climate change one would think that the need for icebreakers isn’t what it once was, but then again Beloved Leader has decreed that climate change is a hoax and has never seen a kickback he didn’t pocket.
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It’s an ice-reinforced AHTS. Those things are magnificent vessels built to withstand the worst the North Sea and Arctic Seas can throw at them and do it while dragging anchors weighing tens of tons. As a civilian vessel, it may be unsuitable for refit for a military role*, but it is by no means a crappy boat. If you have ever looked up at the sheer bulk of an AHTS, especially from the waterline, or seen one towering over shore buildings (I’ll never forget the first time I saw one up close in Aberdeen, just dominating the harbour) you might think differently.
* Why the US Coast Guard is considered a branch of the military, rather than police like pretty much anywhere else, is a topic to discuss another time
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The US Coast Guard isn’t “considered” a branch of the military, it is part of the armed forces per Title 10 of the U.S. Code.
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It’s actually hard to convey the sheer bulk of these vessel in photographs, but here are a few of the many I have taken over the years
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Well, that’s semantics, I suppose. It is a part of the armed forces because it’s considered a part of the armed forces by that society and thus legally codified as such.
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That’s the point. This comes with a lot in tow. Internally and externally. Jurisdiction, rules of engagement, accountability … A lot more than just semantics.
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This particular boat is crappy. While towing a drilling platform it was swamped by 6-meter swells which killed the engines. The USCG rejected then boat, but enough political donations forced the USCG to change their mind.
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Yep, it was always a branch of the military.
In times of war, the Coast Guard or individual components of it can operate as a service of the Department of the Navy. This arrangement has a broad historical basis, as the Coast Guard has been involved in wars as diverse as the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, and the American Civil War, in which the cutter Harriet Lane fired the first naval shots attempting to relieve besieged Fort Sumter. The last time the Coast Guard operated as a whole within the Navy was in World War II, in all some 250,000 served in the Coast Guard during World War II.[59]
I also had a HS student as a freshman and when he was ending his junior year, he decided that he wanted to enlist in the Marines after of high school. I told him to speak his sophomore English teacher before he made this decision (he was a marine in Iraq and who had a twin brother still serving as a helicopter pilot in the Army). The student ended up enlisting in the Coast Guard after HS.
A side note: that English teacher was the most compassionate HS educators I came across. This should remind us all that not all Marine veterans are gung-ho pro-GOP. A lot of them are deep thinkers. My favorite professor served in the Marines, looked, walked and talked like a Marine, but he was a Marxist and encouraged me to get a job with the ACLU. 
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Well, that goes to show that vessels for the arctic probably shouldn’t be built in Louisiana! Let’s see whether the order from Finland survives the trade wars
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I’m sure the profits are very clean. Spotless.
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“Did you hear something? I don’t know what you heard but that wasn’t me. I have an alibi”
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There’s history here:
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Brat BMW – soooo years before last year dahlings, hopefully hipsters will leave old BMWs to get old disgracefully now.
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