Coast Guard to Detail Needs for Arctic Ops

The country's top Coastie is not ready to say how much money or what kinds of equipment, vessels or aircraft he needs to expand operations in the Arctic, where warming temperatures are opening up new areas for commercial shipping, energy exploration and even tourism.

But after three summers of investigation Adm. Thad Allen knows that two very basic things are missing in order to operate in the vast region beyond Alaska's northern coast: infrastructure for launching small boats and an adequate communications system.

"We had a very, very difficult time launching small boats up there, [of the sort] that we would use further south for launching routine search and rescue in and around coastal waters,” Allen told Military.com Monday during a roundtable interview with Military bloggers.

The Guard is looking at a growing role in the waters north of Alaska, as the warming climate is turning what have historically been vast regions of ice into navigable waters.

At Point Barrow, which is the northernmost point in the United States, the Coast Guard found structures in place not suited to launching or recovering rescue vessels, he said.

And in the air aboard a Coast Guard helicopter, communications with the ground base proved impossible, according to Allen. The flight crew had to relay their helo's position to the base via two other aircraft that were airborne in the region.

With summer operations in the region wrapping up, the Coast Guard will produce a high latitude study that will lay out what it has in its fleet and equipment and what it will need to operate in the Arctic region.

Allen said the study is 50 to 60 percent completed.