Dan Webster: “Unfortunately, the previous administration decided that sustainability was going to be injected.”

At the same time, our nation has two operational icebreakers, one of which is dedicated to the Service's Antarctic mission in support of the National Science Foundation and is operating well past its intended service life.

Given these immense resources, it should come as no surprise that adversaries, including Russia and China, are working to assert themselves in the region.

Thank you for your answer. I am hoping that there is also coming with that nine necessary vessels some sort of timeline.

To date, we have yet to see such a plan, let alone a cost estimate or a timeline of the first vessel in the fleet.