A badly needed, new icebreaker for the Coast Guard is at least six years from being commissioned, assuming Congress can come up with the money to build it, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz said.

Even then, the heavy icebreaker that would replace the 42-year-old Polar Star would have the primary mission of busting ice at the South Pole, rather than patrolling the Arctic, where Russia and China aggressively have been making inroads, Schultz said during several appearances in December in Washington, D.C., aiming to rally support for the Coast Guard's budget and readiness initiatives.

"We need one now," Schultz said of the icebreaker, which would be classified as a "Polar Security Cutter." The $950 million that was included in the White House budget plan for the icebreaker has been held up in the House in the ongoing impasse over the Department of Homeland Security budget and those of other agencies as well as border wall funding, the newssite Military.com reports.