The Coast Guard will issue a request for proposals to build its new icebreaker this winter, Sen. Angus King said Thursday night after getting back from a three-day trip to Greenland.

“The president put money in his budget this year to start the process of a new icebreaker, but by the time a new icebreaker is built, the current one will be way beyond its current life, so it’s a replacement not a new one,” King, I-Maine, said at a media availability event at the airport in Maine.