US Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker 5 Years Behind Schedule, $2Bln Over Budget
Sputnik – 07.05.2024
WASHINGTON – The US Coast Guard’s proposed next generation polar icebreaker to reestablish and maintain a strong US presence in the Arctic Ocean is at least five years behind schedule and $2 bln over budget with many design and shipbuilding problems still unresolved, a senior Biden administration official and a new report told Congress.
“The PSC [Polar Security Cutter] program is now years behind the original schedule, without having attained the level of maturity we require prior to authorizing the start of construction,” Department of Homeland Security Deputy Under Secretary for Management Randolph Alles told the US House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security.
The project had suffered from the general lack of US experience designing and building polar icebreakers and its prime contractor VT Halter Marine suffered from organizational instability and has undergone managerial restructuring following its acquisition by Bollinger, a competitor shipyard in 2022, Alles said.
In addition, the design of the Polar Security Cutter is more complex and is taking more than three years longer than expected – delaying delivery of the lead ship by about five years, Alles said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a new report in which it concluded that the program’s costs increased by more than $2 billion due to these challenges.
Even with a projected 39% increase, procurement costs still appear to still be significantly underestimated because the actual ship design is about 35% larger in terms of light-ship displacement than the government’s original notional design, the GAO said.
On April 24, US Coast Guard Vice Commandant Steven Poulin said that the United States is losing ground in the Arctic to its near-peer competitors Russia and China because of a lack of icebreaking capability, but he was optimistic the situation will improve in the future.
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Aletho News 
“The construction of the lead ship was awarded to Saint Petersburg-based Baltic Shipyard, part of the state-owned United Shipbuilding Corporation, in August 2012 with a contract price of 36.959 billion rubles (about US$1.16 billion).[16] A 84.4 billion ruble (about US$2.4 billion) follow-up contract for two additional vessels was signed in May 2014[17][18] and a second contract, worth over 100 billion rubles (about US$1.5 billion), for two more in August 2019.[19][20] In January 2023, the Russian government allocated 58.9 billion rubles (about US$820 million) for financing 50% of the construction of two additional Project 22220 icebreakers[21] and the shipbuilding contract was signed on 2 February.”
So for a total of $5b Russia builds 5 (FIVE) 33,000 ton nuclear powered ice breakers.
Give the Russians the $3b and get 3 delivered in a couple of years.
PS China is building a number of Ice breakers that will be built faster and cheaper than US or Russia.
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