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American Icebreaker – a small problem

There were two American icebreakers, the Polar Star and the Healey.   The first one has been in drydock for over three years, but the work has now stopped, it has now been determined that the 50 year old hull is simply not up to the challenge.   The Healey was supposed to be the answer, in 2024 it suffered from a massive fire, and limped back to port. In its recent sea trials it had a massive engine room fire. It is not clear at this stage if the vessel can be rehabilitated.  In short, the US navy needs new icebreakers.

So far so simple, one tiny fly in the ointment, there are no US shipyards that are currently able to build a new military vessel (the shipyards that could, are booked until at least 2031).   The solution is to purchase new hulls from other nations.  The problem: the two shipyards that have the ability and capacity to build such vessels are in Canada and Finland.   Not exactly good friends right now.  The first is obvious, the second more complex but in a nutshell it is the games that Trump has played that has forced Finland to join NATO.

So on one side, there's the President wanting to assert his power in the North (aka take over Greenland).  At the same time, there's the US Navy that is unable to achieve the mission of getting to Greenland (lots of sea ice about 9 months of the year).  BTW Denmark's navy has a reinforced hull to navigate the seas around Greenland.

Think about this for a minute.   Donald Trump's desire to "take over Greenland" is an impossible dream, unless he is willing to build an expensive airbridge (which is very unlikely).  Another nail in the coffin of America's military dominance.


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