Russia has a new fleet of large icebreakers to keep arctic shipping lanes open.
“Russia has a new fleet of large icebreakers to keep arctic shipping lanes open.”
And NUCLEAR POWERED - they don’t mess around or let our Leftists have any say in what they consider to be their critical needs.
Russia has a feet of dozens of ice breakers - the newest ones are all heavy breakers powered by twin nuclear reactors and can cruise through 9 feet of ice at speed. Some are armed. All the new nuclear ones include sauna, heated pools, squash courts, and food that approaches 5 star cuisine. One or more of them carries passengers as well.
The US has one (1) moth-eaten heavy breaker that was built in 1979, held together with bailing wire, duct tape, and spit.
3 new ones are in the works, but are turning out to be jacks-of-all-trades versions - required to also make open ocean voyages to the Antarctic, which means a compromised hull design. They are several years behind in construction due to changing requirements. Only one of the 3 has a completion date.
Finland could churn out as many state-of-the-art heavy ice breakers quickly and cheaply as we require - but the MAGA ethos dooms that avenue. So we are stuck with ships that are over-budget, have compromised hulls, and are not competitive with any new, and many old, Russian breakers of any design.