Why the US is shopping for icebreakers from Finland | EUROtoday

As President Donald Trump continues to insist that the US must personal Greenland, his wider deal with the Arctic area has seen Washington order new icebreakers.

For these ships, which may sail via seas coated in strong ice, the US has gone to the world skilled – Finland.

Temperatures are sub-zero inside Aker Arctic Technology’s ice laboratory, as the size mannequin of an icebreaker cruises down a 70m-long simulation tank.

It ploughs a neat channel via the frozen floor of the water.

Undergoing testing at a facility in Helsinki, Finland’s capital, this can be a design for the following technology of the nation’s icebreakers.

“It’s crucial that it has sufficient structural strength and engine power,” says ice efficiency engineer, Riikka Matala.

Mika Hovilainen, the agency’s chief government, provides that the form of the vessel can be essential. “You have to have a hull form that breaks ice by bending it downwards,” he says. “It’s not cutting, it’s not slicing.”

Finland is the undisputed world chief relating to icebreakers. Finnish firms have designed 80% of all these at present in operation, and 60% have been constructed at shipyards in Finland.

The nation leads the best way out of necessity, explains Maunu Visuri, president and chief government of Finnish state-owned firm Artica, which operates a fleet of eight icebreakers.

“Finland is the only country in the world where all the harbours may freeze during wintertime,” he says, including that 97% of all items to the nation are imported by sea.

During the coldest months, icebreakers maintain Finland’s ports open, and work as pathfinders for giant cargo ships. “It’s really a necessity for Finland. We say that Finland is an island.”

It was this experience that noticed Trump announce in October that the US deliberate to order 4 icebreakers from Finland for the US Coast Guard.

An additional seven of the vessels, which the US is looking “Arctic Security Cutters”, are to be constructed within the US, utilizing Finnish designs and experience.

“We’re buying the finest icebreakers in the world, and Finland is known for making them,” stated Trump.

Under US regulation, the nation’s naval and coastguard ships have to be domestically-built, however on this case the president waived that requirement on nationwide safety grounds. He cited “aggressive military posturing, and economic encroachment by foreign adversaries”, by which he means Russia and China.

This US concern comes as local weather change continues to make the Arctic Ocean extra navigable for cargo ships, not less than if icebreakers paved the way by chopping a path. This opens up business commerce routes from Asia to Europe, both above Russia, or north of Alaska and Canada’s mainland, and down previous Greenland.

Reduced ice ranges additionally imply that oil and fuel fields beneath the Arctic are extra accessible.

“There’s simply a lot more traffic in that part of the world now,” notes Peter Rybski, a retired US Navy officer and Helsinki-based, Arctic skilled.

“You have an active oil and gas exploration and extraction industry in Russia, as well as a newly-emerging trans-shipment route from Europe to Asia.”

Following Trump’s define announcement final autumn, the primary contracts have been awarded on 29 December.

Finland’s Rauma Marine Constructions is to construct two icebreakers for the US Coast Guard at its shipyard within the Finnish port of Rauma. The first ship is because of be delivered in 2028.

An additional 4 will probably be constructed in Louisiana, with all six utilizing an Aker Arctic Technology diesel-electric powered design.

The US orders are a part of an effort to meet up with the variety of Russian icebreakers. Currently Russia has round 40, together with eight which can be nuclear powered.

By distinction, the US presently solely has three in operation.

Meanwhile China operates round 5 polar-capable vessels. “None of them are technically icebreakers,” says Rybski, pointing to their design not assembly the strict standards. “But they are increasing their fleet.”

He provides that China has more and more been sending these “research” ships into Arctic waters between Alaska and the far east of Russia, together with areas that the US considers its “exclusive economic zone”.

“With limited means to respond this becomes a problem [for the US].”

Trump’s want to enlarge its icebreaker fleet goes past the practicalities of working in ice-clad Arctic seas, assesses Lin Mortensgaard, a researcher on the Danish Institute of International Studies. She says additionally it is about projecting energy.

“No matter how many aircraft carriers you have and how much you use them to threaten states with, you cannot sail your aircraft carrier into the central Arctic Ocean,” she says.

“Icebreakers are really the only kind of naval vessel to signal that you are an Arctic state, with Arctic capabilities. And I think this is what much of the US discourse is about.”

Back in Finland, Helsinki Shipyard occupies a dock on the capital’s waterfront. It is the place half of the world’s icebreakers have been made. Today owned by Canadian agency Davie, it additionally hopes to win new contracts from the US Coast Guard.

“The geopolitical situation has changed definitely,” says the shipyard’s managing director, Kim Salmi.

“We have our eastern neighbour here [Russia]. They are building their own [new] fleet. And the Chinese are building their fleet.”

He provides: “The US, Canada and the western allies in general, are looking for the power balance.”

Inside a cavernous shipbuilding hangar, employees minimize and weld metal for the yard’s newest icebreaker, a heavy-duty Arctic vessel, known as Polarmax that is destined for the Canadian coastguard.

The Finns can construct these advanced vessels remarkably swiftly – it takes between two-and-a-half and three years – due to a streamlined manufacturing methodology, and many years of expertise.

“Over 100 years, we have practised this,” says Artica’s Visuri. “You’ve got this cycle of designers, operators, builders. That’s why Finland is the superpower of icebreakers.”