The Polar Security Program aims to build at least three heavy icebreakers to safeguard U.S. interests in the Arctic and Antarctic. (U.S. Coast Guard)
Bollinger Shipyards is moving forward with design work and construction of the Coast Guard’s first new heavy icebreaker in five decades, part of a program that has faced repeated delays and cost increases.
The Louisiana-based shipyard recently secured a $951 million contract for detailed design and further construction of the USCGC Polar Sentinel, the first of three planned icebreakers, the company announced Tuesday.
Work on the cutter began in August 2023. Bollinger’s predecessor, VT Halter Marine, first secured a contract to build the cutter in 2019 for $745 million. Bollinger purchased VT Halter in 2022.
Construction of the Polar Sentinel is now estimated to cost $1.9 billion, according to an August 2024 report by the Congressional Budget Office. That figure is 39% higher than the Coast Guard’s own projections. Subsequent ships are estimated at $1.6 billion.
The Polar Security Program aims to build at least three heavy icebreakers to safeguard U.S. interests in the Arctic and Antarctic.
The Coast Guard initially expected the Polar Sentinel to be operational in 2024, but it is now unlikely to enter service until 2030, according to a Dec. 18 news release from U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security.
The nearly $1 billion contract modification reflects “the growing urgency with which their platforms are needed to boost our national defense,” Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards, said in the company’s statement.
The U.S. now operates only two aging icebreakers: the 27-year-old medium icebreaker USCGC Healy and the 49-year-old heavy icebreaker USCGC Polar Star. The Coast Guard’s other heavy icebreaker, the Polar Sea, has been out of service since 2010 due to engine failure.
By contrast, Russia operates a fleet of 55 icebreakers, while China has four, U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster, R-Fla., noted in a Nov. 14 subcommittee news release.
“In the Arctic, the Coast Guard projects American sovereignty in a region containing substantial resources that support a robust fishing industry, vast energy and mineral reserves, and new routes to facilitate maritime commerce,” he wrote.
Webster said it was “no surprise” that Russia and China are asserting themselves in the resource-rich region.
To fill the gap until the new icebreakers are built, the U.S. purchased a second medium icebreaker, the USCGC Storis, for $125 million in December. It is expected to enter service next year.
The Polar Security Program has been “plagued by delays and cost overruns,” according to the Congressional Budget Office’s report. It estimated the cost of three heavy icebreakers at $5.1 billion — 60% higher than the Coast Guard’s projections.
“It’s been six years since this program was authorized, and we still don’t have a final design,” Gimenez said at a Dec. 18 subcommittee hearing. “It only took us nine years to get to the moon.”
