The Coast Guard on Tuesday awarded Bollinger Shipyards a $951.6 million contract modification to complete the detail design and construction of the first Polar Security Cutter (PSC), with work expected to be completed in May 2030.
If delivery of the PSC also occurs in 2030, the Coast Guard’s first new heavy polar icebreaker will be six years late. Moreover, the fixed-price-incentive-firm target contract modification increases substantially the cost of the first vessel.
In April 2019, the Coast Guard awarded the former VT Halter Marine—acquired by Bollinger in November 2022—$745.9 million for the engineering and detail design of the ship class, and procurement of long lead-time materials and construction of the first ship. That contract included options for two additional PSCs for a combined value of $1.9 billion for the three-ship buy.
The Coast Guard’s program of record is for three PSCs, although a fleet mix analysis has shown a potential need for more of the vessels. That analysis shows the service needs a combined fleet of eight or nine polar icebreakers consisting of a mix of PSCs and a yet-to-be-developed and built new medium polar icebreaker to break ice in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
“The PSC’s mission will be to ensure continued access to both polar regions and support the country’s economic, commercial, maritime, and national security needs,” the Navy said in the contract award notice. The award was made through Naval Sea Systems Command. The program is managed by a Coast Guard-Navy integrated program office.
Earlier this month the Coast Guard said that Bollinger was nearly 92 percent complete with the PSC’s design. The last heavy polar icebreaker built in the U.S., the current Polar Star, was commissioned in 1976. The service’s lone medium polar icebreaker, the Healy, was commissioned in 1999.
Design and construction of the new PSC has been hampered by the fact that no U.S. shipyard has built a heavy icebreaker in nearly 50 years, and the shipbuilding industrial base has to contend with a complex design and a shortage of requisite skills.
The Department of Homeland Security in December approved the Coast Guard allowing Bollinger to continue building prefabrication units of the ship to further develop the skills and expertise needed to move full production (Defense Daily, Dec. 24, 2024). The Coast Guard describes this a “progressive crawl-walk-run approach.”
Approval to begin full production awaits.
“Securing this contract modification has truly been a herculean effort and underscores the incredible trust the U.S. government has placed in Bollinger to build and deliver the first heavy polar icebreaker in half a century,” Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger, said in a statement. “We wouldn’t be in the solid position we’re in today without the leadership and the tireless efforts of the entire team at Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding. Their hard work and dedication have successfully put the PSC program on a strong path forward after a rocky start under the previous, foreign-owned builder. We now look forward to receiving the green light to begin full production.”
VT Halter Marine, which was based in Mississippi, was owned by Singapore’s ST Engineering.
A contracting announcement said 56 percent of the work will be done in Pascagoula, Miss., 7 percent in Boston, and the rest spread across other cities and towns in the U.S.
Bollinger said it has invested $76 million across its Mississippi facilities since acquiring VT Halter Marine, which was based in the state. The Louisiana-based company also said it has increased its workforce there by over 61 percent, with production roles at Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding up 178 percent. Hiring will continue as the program moves into full production in the coming years, it said.
To fill a gap in polar icebreaking needs, the Coast Guard in December acquired a commercial icebreaker, which will be commissioned as the Storis, that will operate in Alaska waters this summer.