The 420-foot Coast Guard Cutter Healy breaks ice in the Bering Sea to assist the tanker Renda on Jan. 8, 2012. US Coast Guard Photo

The U.S. Coast Guard has begun work to design and buy three heavy and three medium polar icebreakers, but the service reserves the right to increase the size of the program or even add offensive weapons to them if needed to respond to a rapidly changing Arctic environment, the commandant said. Read More →