Defense Technology International – Icebreaker Break-down, and the USCG’s Crossroads

One of the U.S. Coast Guard’s three polar icebreakers, the Polar Sea, likely will be in maintenance and unavailable for operations until at least January 2011, the armed service announced Friday afternoon. The breakdown means the icebreaker will skip its fall Arctic patrol, and it will most likely keep the cutter from providing standby capability to support resupply of McMurdo Station, Antarctica.