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The Polar 8 Project was a Canadian shipbuilding project based upon a class of 167-metre, 101,000-horsepower, diesel-electric powered high endurance icebreakers intended for the Canadian Coast Guard. The project was developed as a means to assert Canada's sovereignty in the Arctic Ocean. It commenced in 1985 but was cancelled in 1990 while still in the final design stage.〔(Polar 8 never made it from blueprint to Arctic )〕 The Polar 8 Project was proposed to Parliament in 1985 by the new Progressive Conservative government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. It was Canada's direct response to the unauthorized transit through the Northwest Passage in summer 1985 by the USCGC ''Polar Sea'', a United States Coast Guard icebreaker. The Polar 8 Project was originally designed to be nuclear-powered, however this was subsequently down-graded to a conventional diesel-electric power plant. The ship would be equipped with two transport helicopters, 2 LST (auxiliary landing vessels), 4 life rafts, and possibly 2 hovercraft. ==Project cancellation== The massive 1989 federal budget cuts saw funding for the Polar 8 Project reduced and eventually it was cancelled in 1990, only two months before construction was scheduled to begin. The ships were to have been built at Versatile Pacific Shipyards in British Columbia at a cost of $700 million CAD each. The CCG had delayed critical modernization upgrades that had been planned for its Gulf-class icebreaker, the CCGS ''Louis S. St-Laurent'' during the late 1980s while the Polar 8 Project was underway. Following the Polar 8 Project cancellation, CCG funded the modernization overhaul and hull extension of ''Louis S. St-Laurent'' in order to maintain a strategic presence in the Arctic Ocean. CCG has also purchased a former commercial icebreaker, the MV ''Terry Fox'', in 1992 as a stop-gap measure. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Polar 8 Project」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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