 This is the Coast Guard's massive icebreaker heli. At 420 feet, it's the Coast Guard's largest vessel and one of only two U.S. icebreakers able to operate in the frigid polar regions. But what are they doing up there anyway? Today, we're going to take you aboard the heli to show you what it's like to live and work on one of these huge ships and uncover the real reason the Coast Guard operates in the polar regions. To understand the Coast Guard's polar mission, we spoke with the crew of Coast Guard Cutter Heli. Supporting Arctic research is the heli's primary mission. We were specifically designed in cooperation with the National Science Foundation to conduct research in that region. To get researchers to these remote locations, the heli can break ice up to 8.5 feet thick using the power from its enormous diesel electric plant. Four powerful diesel engines produce an impressive 46,000 horsepower. This energy is converted into electricity to drive the heli's electric motors, which spin its two massive 16-foot propellers and thrust the heli forward to smash through walls of ice. But all of that would be impossible without the heli's specially designed bow, which does a couple interesting things. The hull itself is constructed so that there is an ice belt that's about an inch and a half to two inches thick and make sure that as we are impacting the ice, we're not deforming the ship. The bow also has this reinforced point area called the ice knife. That is essentially a stronger point of impact, purposely built to, as we're impacting the ice, open it up. But even though the heli is built to break ice, the crew actually tries to avoid ice when possible. When determining what route to take, our deck watch officers and ice pilots are trained to analyze all the conditions, and they do that by utilizing all the resources they have available to them. First, the deck watch officer is positioned up here in the aloft con, which gives them a better view of their surroundings. They also have access to satellite imagery, forecasting, and radar. They use those resources in order to analyze the conditions and how the conditions might change and then identify the path of the least resistance through the ice. Polar ice is made of large sheets called ice flows. The heli actively looks for fractures in these sheets called leads to push through and can continuously break four feet of ice, moving at speeds of seven knots. But if the ice is too thick, they need a different approach. And at that point, our ice pilots have to switch to backing and ramming. The heli will back up and using its speed and weight, move forward to ram into the ice flow to break up to eight and a half feet thick ice. You don't want to impact the ice at the same point which you've impacted previously, so we typically try to impact it at a different angle. And then we use that momentum to try and make our way through the ice. Other ice breakers like the Polar Star break ice in a different way. Their spoon shaped hull lifts them on top of the ice to crush it beneath its incredible weight. Once the heli is in the Arctic, the science begins. We provide access, reliable access to researchers with the large amount of laboratory space on board and the ability to bring up to 50 scientists from around the world. Our diversity and reliability makes heli a capable platform. The heli has more than 4,200 square feet of scientific space, including multiple laboratories and high-capacity cranes to deploy heavy equipment. In 2023, the heli deployed in support of two scientific missions, one in support of the Office of Naval Research. The second mission we did was in support of the Nansen and Amundsen observation system. That water sampling looked at understanding how the water flowing in from the Atlantic Ocean is changing the ice cap and how that can impact the climate in the rest of the world. But Arctic research comes with some unique risks, like polar bears. The heli uses trained crew members who keep a vigilant watch for any signs of polar bear activity to allow the crew to safely return to the ship before the bear arrives at the research site. And sometimes that happens, like this polar bear who tried to pause at using some of the researchers' equipment. Or this one who gave the crew a distant yoga lesson. To get up to these remote locations, the heli has an endurance of about 60 days and can hold nearly one and a half million gallons of diesel. That's the equivalent of three Olympic-sized swimming pools. But what's life like on these long patrols? Living on a cutter, it can get cramped sometimes, but you definitely get close with the people you work and live with. To see polar bear in their natural habitat, or to watch a very brief sunrise and sunset in the later part of the year in a landscape of ice that is not flat, but has these wonderful characteristics associated with it is just an amazing experience for me. To house upwards of 137 people, the heli is built like a floating city. It's complete with the Coast Guard's largest floating medical facility, a gym, a store, and of course, birthing areas to relax and sleep. But outside the ship, the crew must endure the frigid polar temperatures, so they have access to warm uniform items unique to anywhere else in the Coast Guard. The amenities found on the heli are a far cry from ice breaking's humble beginnings. The Coast Guard can trace its ice breaking routes all the way back to the 1800s with a 200-foot steam-powered cutter bear, which was legendary for its work off the Alaskan coast. One of the bear's commanding officers was none other than cutter heli's namesake, Captain Michael A. Healy, the first African-American man to command a U.S. government ship. Throughout the next 40 years, the Coast Guard continued to develop its new ice breaking technology, but it wasn't until the 1940s when the service commissioned its first true polar ice breakers, the Wind Class. Built during World War II, these cutters gained prominence for their performance in polar ice conditions. In 1944, Coast Guard cutter Eastwind assisted in the capture of the last German weather station in Greenland. And after the war, the Wind Class cutters went on to enable some of the first U.S. Antarctic research expeditions. The Coast Guard eventually replaced the Wind Class with two new heavy ice breakers in 1976, the Polar Star and the Polar Sea. Of the two, only the Polar Star is currently an active commission. Its crew is tasked with a yearly voyage down to Antarctica to clear ice up to 21 feet thick for the research community McMurdo Station. But the newest polar ice breaker in the U.S. is of course Coast Guard cutter Healy, commissioned in 1999. To be a part of the history of the United States Coast Guard operating in the Arctic region is a longstanding, proud opportunity of the United States Coast Guard to operate in the Arctic Ocean. In recent years, the Coast Guard has been racing towards the development of a new fleet of polar ice breakers, said to be named the Polar Security Cutters. These ships are more vital than ever before because the polar regions are changing. This is what ice looked like in 1979 and here's what it looked like only a few years ago. As the Arctic is changing, the ice is not completely disappearing. As Arctic ice recedes, vessel traffic in the region will likely increase due to new shipping routes, tourism and access to resources. The Coast Guard needs to access those regions to be able to carry out the statutory missions that we have in other parts of the United States. In addition to scientific research, we also are able to use our capabilities as an ice breaker to support other Coast Guard missions, including search and rescue, maritime pollution response and law enforcement, anywhere in the polar regions that were needed. But it's not just about the safety of life at sea and protecting the environment. Other nations are building up their own fleets of ice-capable vessels, and the Coast Guard's polar ice breakers are essential to protecting American interests in this geopolitically complex region. It's important that the Coast Guard maintain presence in the region to cooperate with those nations who have a like-minded vision of an international rules-based order where we respect the sovereignty and cooperate for a global understanding of how the Arctic and its resources can benefit the globe. During this last patrol, Healy participated in at sea exercises with Canada, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. Through these exercises, we built our interoperability and strengthened our partnerships with these like-minded nations. The Coast Guard's polar ice breakers are an engineering marvel, and as we can see, breaking ice is only one part of their overall mission. As the polar regions change, the Coast Guard will need to change too. Looking forward, I have every confidence that the Coast Guard is ready to continue polar operations through the Polar Security Program and through other Arctic surface capabilities as we look to the future generations of how the Coast Guard will lead in the U.S. Arctic.