Polar Security Cutter program: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:37, 28 September 2024

Revision as of 08:34, 21 December 2024

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* $794 million (second vessel)

* $841 million (third vessel)<ref name="RL34391_sept2022" />

* $5.1 billion ([[Congressional Budget Office|CBO]] 2024 estimate for three vessels)<ref name="cbo_april2024">{{cite web|url=https:/>/www.cbo.gov/publication/60244|title=Testimony on the Cost of the Coast Guard's Polar Security Cutter|website=Congressional Budget Office|date=30 April 2024|accessdate=3 May 2024}}</ref>

| Built range =

| In service range = * 2024– (planned)

* 20292030 (current estimate)<ref name="cbo_april2024wt20241218">{{cite web|url=https://www.cbowashingtontimes.govcom/publicationnews/2024/dec/18/new-u-arctic-icebreakers-won-ready-2030-lawmakers-/60244|title=TestimonyNew onU.S. theArctic Costicebreakers ofwon’t thebe Coastready Guard'suntil Polar2030, Securitylawmakers Cuttersay|website=Congressional BudgetWashington OfficeTimes|date=3018 AprilDecember 2024|accessdate=321 MayDecember 2024}}</ref>

| In commission range =

| Total ships planned = 3

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In August 2023, Bollinger Shipyards began steel cutting for eight "prototype modules" for the first Polar Security Cutter.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.usni.org/2023/08/09/bollinger-cuts-first-steel-on-polar-security-cutter-polar-sentinel|title=Bollinger Cuts First Steel on Polar Security Cutter|date=9 August 2023|accessdate=10 August 2023|publisher=USNI News}}</ref>

On 7 May 2024, the [[Congressional Budget Office]] testified before the Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security of the Committee on Homeland Security. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the total cost of three vessels would be $5.1 billion, about 60% more than the Coast Guard's estimate in March 2024, and the delivery of the first vessel would be in 2029.<ref name="cbo_april2024" /> In December 2024, it was estimated that the vessel would be operational in 2030 at the earliest.<ref name="wt20241218" /> When subcommittee chair [[Carlos A. Giménez]] asked why the Polar Security Cutter design was only 67% complete after five years of work, a [[Government Accountability Office]] witness explained that nothing like the Polar Security Cutter has been built in the United States in 50 years; American shipbuilders have no recent experience building large icebreakers. Coast Guard Vice Admiral [[Paul F. Thomas|Paul Thomas]] reminded the subcommittee that Halter Marine chose to base the PSC design upon the proposed ''Polarstern II'' design, rather than upon an existing Finnish icebreaker suggested by the Coast Guard. Because the ''Polarstern II'' has never been built, its design is necessarily incomplete.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ruskin |first=Liz |date=7 May 2024 |title=The U.S. was supposed to get keys to a new heavy icebreaker this year. Instead, construction is years late as costs soar. |url=https://alaskapublic.org/2024/05/07/the-u-s-was-supposed-to-get-keys-to-a-new-heavy-icebreaker-this-year-instead-construction-is-years-late-as-costs-soar/ |work=[[Alaska Public Media]] |___location=Washington, DC |access-date=8 May 2024}}</ref>

==Design==