Awareness of the environmental and economic importance of the Arctic region is growing. The Arctic region is a very harsh operating environment, making research expensive and risky. NSF is the largest federal provider of funds for research in this region. The U.S. Coast Guard, part of the Department of Transportation, is charged with providing and operating icebreakers to meet U.S. military, logistic, and research needs in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. From 1966 to 1991, the U.S. Coast Guard operated the nation’s icebreakers. The mission of the Coast Guard’s Ice Operations Division, Office of Navigation Safety and Waterways Services, includes assisting other governmental and scientific organizations in scientific research and supporting national interests in the polar regions. Investigators representing or sponsored by universities, private institutions, and government agencies—including the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—conduct research aboard the Coast Guard icebreakers. The Arctic Research and Policy Act of 1984, as amended, calls for coordination among agencies over the use of logistics resources, including icebreakers, in the conduct of research. The act established the Arctic Research Commission to promote research in the Arctic region and to recommend Arctic research policy. Also under the act, responsibility for promoting the coordination of all Arctic research activities among agencies, including logistics (e.g., icebreaker support), rests with the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee. The Committee is headed by NSF and includes the Coast Guard among its members. Furthermore, in a 1987 agreement aimed at minimizing conflict and serving national interests, NSF and the Coast Guard pledged “to plan together, to the maximum extent possible, for the use of U.S. icebreakers in the support of polar research.” The Arctic research community has sought a vessel dedicated to Arctic research for many years. The Arctic Research Commission recommended that such a vessel be acquired. The Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee echoed this recommendation. Beginning in 1987, the scientific community, through the University National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), used funds from NSF to study the requirements for, and possible designs of, an Arctic research vessel. Comments from the Arctic scientific community from 1990 to 1992, discussions in the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee, and other forums were used to define the characteristics of the vessel. From 1990 to the present, NSF and UNOLS, working with a private engineering firm, developed preliminary designs for Arctic research vessels of increasing size and icebreaking capability. The first design called for a 200-foot vessel with modest icebreaking capability whose estimated cost was about $40 million. After the Arctic scientific community reviewed and commented on this design, it was agreed that a larger vessel with greater icebreaking capacity was needed. Accordingly, a 340-foot vessel was designed with significant icebreaking capability and the capacity to perform 90-day missions in the Arctic region. This vessel is expected to cost about $120 million. Acquisition of the proposed vessel is not supported by a quantified analysis of the nation’s requirements for icebreakers or by the scientific community’s criticism of the Coast Guard’s support for research. Moreover, records of actual and projections of future icebreaker use suggest that a fifth icebreaking vessel may not be needed. A 1990 interagency study of national polar icebreaker requirements (PIRS),the most recent such quantified study, did not call for the construction of the proposed vessel. NSF justifies the proposed vessel on the grounds that (1) Arctic research needs are increasing and (2) the United States does not have a vessel dedicated to Arctic research. However, NSF has not demonstrated that another icebreaker is required to meet research needs. The study documented the nation’s icebreaker requirements and recommended a fleet of four icebreakers. These are the Polar Sea and Polar Star (currently operating Coast Guard icebreakers); Nathaniel B. Palmer (an Antarctic icebreaking research vessel); and Michael A. Healy (a planned Coast Guard icebreaker). The proposed vessel would be the fifth U.S. icebreaker, one more than recommended by the 1990 study. Funds for the Healy have been approved, and the vessel is scheduled to begin duty in 1998. According to Coast Guard officials, the Healy will serve primarily as an Arctic research vessel except when circumstances require its use elsewhere. To determine icebreaker requirements, the 1990 study quantified operational and research mission needs. To quantify needs, the number of days icebreakers were required to accomplish the missions was totaled. Operational missions consisted of the annual resupply of the Thule Air Force Base in Greenland and the McMurdo Antarctic research station (an NSF mission), as well as treaty inspection duties in the Antarctic. Research requirements for icebreaker support were also quantified and used in the study. However, these requirements do not reflect subsequent changes in users’ needs, such as the military’s reduced needs for icebreaker services resulting from the end of the Cold War and other agencies’ increased needs attributed to higher priorities for Arctic research. Areas of increased research emphasis include Arctic fisheries, because of concern over fluctuating fish catches, and Arctic water quality, because of concern over radionuclide and other contamination originating in the former Soviet Union. The scientific community has produced several reports recommending the acquisition of an icebreaking vessel dedicated to Arctic research. None of these reports attempts to justify the proposed vessel by comparing the realistic demand for icebreakers to be used for research with the availability of existing and planned Coast Guard icebreakers. Reports of the Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. Arctic Research Commission, and the Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee justify an additional vessel on the basis of (1) the increasing (although not quantified) needs for research in the Arctic and (2) the observation that the United States does not possess a vessel dedicated to Arctic research. These reports do not balance the increased needs for icebreakers to support research with the decreased needs for icebreakers to support defense missions. Nor do the reports state why existing and planned Coast Guard icebreakers, whose missions include supporting Arctic research, cannot meet these needs. Finally, the reports do not consider where the additional funding for research will be obtained to fully employ a five-icebreaker fleet. To address these shortcomings, NSF requested that the National Research Council, which is affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences, examine the scientific community’s needs for icebreaker support and how they can best be met. Neither the NSF program manager nor the study’s director is certain whether the study will attempt to quantify the needs for icebreakers to support research in the Arctic. Planning for the study began in November 1994, and the final results are expected in the summer of 1995. The potential for underutilizing existing and planned Coast Guard icebreakers has led that agency to oppose the construction of the proposed vessel. Both the actual use of Coast Guard vessels for research in the Arctic over the past 4 years and the projected use in 1995 and 1996 are lower than estimated in the 1990 study. Coast Guard records for 1994 show 83 days of icebreaker use for the Arctic research of NSF and others, compared with the 143 days of use projected for NSF’s research in the 1990 PIRS. Furthermore, no use of Coast Guard vessels for research in the Arctic region is scheduled, or likely, for 1995. Prospects for a scientific mission in 1996 are not good, according to Coast Guard and NSF officials, because of funding constraints. Many in the Arctic scientific community justify the acquisition of the proposed vessel on the grounds that the Coast Guard, because it has multiple missions, does not possess the desire, skills, or facilities to provide adequate support for Arctic science. However, this justification is not convincing, given improvements in the Coast Guard’s commitment and ability to support research in the region. Some Arctic scientists assert that the Coast Guard values its other missions over supporting science. As a result, say these scientists, the Coast Guard lacks the desire to ensure the successful completion of scientific cruises to the Arctic. For example, supporting the U.S. military is a significant and traditional Coast Guard mission. The Coast Guard’s adherence to this mission may result in approaches and goals on cruises that differ from those of the scientists on board. For instance, the strict chain of command on Coast Guard vessels has made communication between the chief scientist and the Captain of the vessel cumbersome, limiting flexibility in the accomplishment of research. Scientists, on the other hand, are generally not accustomed to seeking authorization for minor changes in the conduct of research projects. In recent years, the Coast Guard has placed greater emphasis on its role in supporting science. This increased priority is evidenced by an agreement between the Coast Guard and NSF on support for polar research, Coast Guard directives concerning such research, and a decline in the military mission for the Coast Guard’s icebreaker fleet. The Coast Guard’s operating authority includes supporting oceanographic research as a Coast Guard mission. In addition, in 1987, the Coast Guard pledged in an agreement with NSF to maintain trained personnel and icebreakers with adequate facilities to support polar research. Also, following an unsuccessful and contentious scientific cruise in 1991, high-ranking Coast Guard officials, including the Commandant, issued several directives stressing the importance of supporting Arctic science as a Coast Guard mission. Finally, Coast Guard officials in the Division of Ice Operations observed that the scientific mission has taken on added importance for the Coast Guard icebreaker fleet as emphasis on the military mission for these vessels has declined. Arctic scientists who participated in scientific cruises aboard Coast Guard icebreakers have noted significant improvements in the willingness of Coast Guard personnel to work with and support scientists. However, many Arctic scientists have maintained that Coast Guard personnel lack the skills necessary to adequately support research in the Arctic. Furthermore, some of the scientists believe that acquiring the proposed vessel would allow them to employ a crew that is highly skilled in supporting research.