Ice Breakers To Rip Shipping Paths Across The Arctic
A Canadian company aims to design icebreakers that would enable US ships to transit the Arctic Circle, potentially reducing the duration of many commercial voyages by several days. The purchase of a shipyard in Texas could speed up the process.
The Wall Street Journal reports, “Icebreakers are vital to the U.S.’s ability to flex its muscle in the Arctic. The U.S. has three Arctic-ready icebreakers in service. Russia has a fleet of almost 50 of the vessels.”
The Arctic is important to the US for two reasons. One is military, and the other is commercial. Fifty-three percent of the Arctic coastline is located in Russia. It has several naval bases, other military bases, and projects under construction. Controlling the top of the world has huge value in an army confrontation between the US and Russia.
Russian Ships
A total of 1,789 ships went through what is known as the “Arctic Polar Code Area.”
The commercial value of polar transit is that it allows ships to move from the East to the Western Hemispheres without the use of the Suez and Panama Canal. This not only saves money. It also helps avoid the problems the two canals have. In the case of the Panama Canal, the number of ships it can handle has been affected by drought. The Suez traffic has fallen because of military attacks on ships that move through the Red Sea to the Canal.
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