Icebreaking capability would be equivalent to the POLAR Class Icebreaker Polar Star and research facilities and accommodations equivalent to HEALY. VT Halter Marine graphic if the Polar Security Cutter design The US Coast Guard has released a request for information (RFI) ahead of a planned procurement of polar landing craft (PLC) that will support operations of the service’s new heavy icebreaker, the polar security cutter. The partnership with Canada on the icebreaker program is based on an a 2004 agreement for Cooperation in Science and Technology for Critical Infrastructure and Border Security, the release explained.
He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland and a master’s degree from New York University. The design is optimized between icebreaking and seakeeping to support the voyage from its CONUS homeport to Antarctic. He has worked as a freelance writer in Busan, South Korea, and as a staff writer covering education and publicly traded companies for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., Savannah Morning News in Savannah, Ga., and Baltimore Business Journal. "true" : "false") + "; expires=" + d.toUTCString() + "; path=/";
The Polar Security Cutter will have split stacks, which provides the bridge a view of the helicopter pad in the aft of the ship, Raj said. The United States Coast Guard affords icebreaker support, both domestic and polar, to a variety of ship operations conducted in areas made hazardous or impassable by ice. That’s true for Baltic icebreakers, that’s true for the Russian icebreakers that have to keep the sea lanes open,” Raj said. We formed an integrated program office with the Navy to take advantage of their shipbuilding experience. d.setTime(d.getTime() + 60 * 60 * 24 * 2 * 1000);
The Committee on Polar Icebreaker Cost Assessment of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine estimated in July 2017 that the rough order-of-magnitude (ROM) cost of the first heavy icebreaker to be $983 million. Currently, the heavy polar icebreaker Healy is tasked with regular science research missions to the Arctic while Polar Star conducts the annual Operation Deep Freeze deployment to resupply McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Marine Log provides some additional details on the specifications for the Polar Security Cutter (Heavy Polar Icebreaker) construction project, recently contracted to VT Halter. So, you can see that we have a long body.”. A U.S. Coast Guard ship cuts through Arctic Ocean ice. The type of steel used to build the icebreaker is also significant. Starting in November 2016, the HPIB ship design team developed an indicative (or concept) design, which has undergone several revisions as more information became available, completing a fifth iteration in September 2017. var setNptTechAdblockerCookie = function(adblocker) {
Typical polar icebreaker missions include escort of vessels supplying outlying military or scientific stations: independent logistics support to similar outposts and ice and ocean survey operations and support in both polar regions. var script = document.createElement("script");
VARD is owned by Italy's FINCANTIERI. Healy is a good deal younger, commissioned in 2000 and capable of ramming through up to eight feet of ice. Siemens was planning the propulsion and L3 the C4ISR. VT Halter and Technology Associates team researched several heavy icebreakers, using one, two and three propeller pods for propulsion, Raj said. The Coast Guard requires six heavy and four medium icebreakers to fulfill its statutory missions and maintain the continuous presence requirements of the [2010] Naval Operations Concept. Jan … The Coast Guard planne to release a draft request for proposals (RFP) for detail design and construction by the end of fiscal year 2017, followed by release of the final RFP in fiscal year 2018. Apr 2019 – Present 1 year 3 months. The Polar Security Cutter’s builder VT Halter Marine teamed up with New Orleans-based Technology Associates Inc. to focus on creating a cost-effective design that is flexible enough to accommodate new technologies, changing missions and complicated repairs. May 9, 2019. Now, the materials used to build propellers have improved to the point that propellers are part of the icebreaking process. Nominal range (21,500 @ 12 knots) is less than Polar Star (28,275 @ 13 knots), but still generous. Cost Estimate is based on a ship with integrated electric drive, 3 propellers, a combined diesel and gas (electric) propulsion plant. The cost of repairing Polar Sea would be astronomical to consider, Raj said. Earlier, on 11 September, the Coast Guard opened a Polar Security Cutter office at VT Halter Marine's shipyard in Pascagoula, MS, to coordinate and monitor the construction of the new vessels. The Senate Armed Services Committee was interested in better understanding the plan for Navy equipment to be incorporated on HPIBs. Compared to the Polar Star, the new Polar Security Cutter beam is essentially the same. The indicative design represents an icebreaker design that meets the threshold key performance parameter of breaking 6 feet of ice at a continuous speed of 3 knots rather than the objective parameter of 8 feet of ice at a continuous speed of 3 knots. Laxman Pai. document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script);
Cutting machine POLAR D 56 - Programmable entry-level model for digital prints up to SRA3 > Cutting machine POLAR D 66 - … The contracts were awarded to the following recipients: Bollinger Shipyards, LLC, Lockport, Louisiana; Fincantieri Marine Group, LLC, Washington, District of Columbia; General Dynamics/National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, San Diego, California; Huntington Ingalls, Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi; and VT Halter Marine, Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi. For inspiration, the designers looked at the Coast Guard’s current fleet of heavy icebreakers. “An interesting element of the icebreaker that us naval architects don’t really realize, this whole thing is steel, it’s really one big battering ram of steel and engines and propellers, and the rest is just fuel and mission,” Raj said. A timeline showing the projected life of the Polar Star, with and without a life extension effort, along with the projected delivery dates for the three Polar Security Cutters, starting in 2024. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report on April 13, 2017, titled Status of Coast Guards Heavy Polar Icebreaker Acquisition (GAO18385R), which noted added space, weight, and power reservations for Navy equipment, such as a multi-mode radar and minor caliber weapons, were incorporated in the Department of Homeland Security-approved Operational Requirements Document for the Heavy Polar Icebreaker (HPIB) in January 2018. Polar Security Cutter Project Resident Office.
This puts us in the best possible position to succeed in this important endeavor, said Haycock. The success of icebreaker designs will depend on rugged testing protocols. “So, concentrating on the steel element is an important portion of it.”. In comparison, Finland’s new IB Polaris heavy icebreaker is about 360-feet long, according to its builder Artia. General Dynamics had teamed with Norwegian ship designer and manufacturer VARD for the Coast Guard's heavy Polar Icebreaker Program, the company says. Accessing the engine for repairs would mean cutting a hole in the hull with no realistic way to patch it when finished. VT Halter Marine selected a hull based on the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research vessel Polarstern II.
The operational US polar icebreaking fleet currently consists of one heavy polar icebreaker, Polar Star. The integrated USCG-Navy program office plans to award a single contract for design and construction of the lead heavy polar icebreaker in 2019. Page last modified:
The Coast Guard awarded the $745.9 million contract to build the Polar Security Cutter in April and delivery is expected in 2024. Procurement of long leadtime materials (LLTM) for the three ships would start in Q4 of 2019, Q2 of 2021, and Q2 of 2022. GD's NASSCO shipbuilding division is leading the company's effort on the icebreaker program. The U.S. Coast Guard awarded five firm fixed-price contracts for Heavy Polar Icebreaker design studies and analysis 22 February 2017. Gen. Ronald Baczkowski, now chief executive of VT Halter Marine, at last week’s American Society of Naval Engineers Arctic Day 2019 conference. A “polar security cutter” is essentially a Coast Guard national security cutter that can break ice and operate effectively in unforgiving polar environments. We put our engines up high, and you can actually pull the block up through the stack if you had a catastrophic failure.”. The studies were expected to take 12 months to complete, with study results provided incrementally during that time. The Polar Security Cutter will be 460-feet long. An artist’s rendering of VT Halter Marine’s winning bid for the U.S. Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter. An example of how the icebreaker’s design and build teams weighed the placement of major components and which materials to use is the Polar Security Cutter’s engine space, said Anil Raj, the president of Technology Associates, at the conference. An alternative would be a block buy contract. Presumably displacement will be greater than that of either Polar Star or Healy, over 20,000 tons full load. Under the Polar Security Cutter contract, the selected shipyard will mature the … 
The Polar Security Cutter’s primary mission is breaking thick ice so cargo ships can bring supplies to the harshest harbors on Earth, such as the National Science Foundation’s research facility, McMurdo Station, in Antarctica. Accordingly, not later than December 1, 2018, the Secretary of the Navy was directed, in consultation with the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Management, to submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and the House of Representatives an unclassified report, which may include a classified annex, containing the following: (1) A detailed description of Navy equipment planned to be included in HPIBs, including Navy-Type, Navy- Owned equipment; (2) The estimated space, weight, power, and cost for the equipment described in paragraph (1); (3) A description of Navy equipment under consideration to be included in HPIBs; (4) The estimated space, weight, power, and cost for the equipment described in paragraph (3); (5) An explanation of the capability of the equipment listed in paragraphs (1) and (3) to assist or augment the missions of the Combatant Commanders and the execution of the Department of Defenses 2016 Arctic Strategy; and (6) A description of how the equipment listed in paragraphs (1) and (3) will meet a modular open systems approach to allow for future mission expansion. The Coast Guard will issue its first construction contract for the long-awaited Polar Security Cutter icebreaker program in the “spring,” Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Karl Schultz announced March 21 during the annual state-of-the-Coast Guard speech in Long Beach, California. This is consistent with USCG concepts for the vessel. The committees analysis of the ship size to incorporate the required components (stack-up length) suggests an overall length of 132 meters (433 feet) and a beam of 27 meters (89 feet). GD says VARD is one of the premiere global designers of polar icebreakers. Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd (ST Engineering), a global technology, defence and engineering group today announced that the U.S. Department of the Navy has awarded VT Halter Marine, its shipbuilding business in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the Polar Security Cutter (formerly known as the Heavy Polar Ice Breaker) contract. Most popular used models for sale are the Polar 115ED, Polar 115 EMC, 115 XT and 115 CE cutters. “But that’s not necessarily true for the icebreaker that has to travel 9,000 miles to reach its target and keep the people comfortable and needs to carry the fuel to get there. Navy said in a press release on 04 August 2017 that "Engineers and scientists from Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division [NSWC, Maryland] are working with an international, multiagency team to define requirements for and create the US Coast Guard's (USCG) next heavy polar icebreaker". document.cookie = "__adblocker=; expires=Thu, 01 Jan 1970 00:00:00 GMT; path=/";
USCG Polar Security Cutter Details Unveiled. The first ship is … The acquisition of Polar Security Cutters is being jointly managed across the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard through an IPO that leverages the expertise and utilizes best practices across each enterprise to deliver a fleet of highly capable, multi-mission ships in the most cost-efficient and timely manner possible. The ships would be delivered in Q3 of 2023, Q2 of 2025, and the Q2 of 2026. (function(src){var a=document.createElement("script");a.type="text/javascript";a.async=true;a.src=src;var b=document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];b.parentNode.insertBefore(a,b)})("//experience.tinypass.com/xbuilder/experience/load?aid=bYdYZQml5V"); On 23 April 2019 the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, through an Integrated Program Office (IPO), awarded VT Halter Marine a fixed price incentive (firm) contract for the Detail Design and Construction (DD&C) of the Coast Guards lead Polar Security Cutter (PSC). And with the fiscal 2021 budget submission now before Congress, the Coast Guard says it can fully fund a second polar security cutter, according to a … The cutter is powered by a diesel-electric arrangement pairing three unspecified Caterpillar prime movers paired with electrical motors. The design uses mostly flat plates with some compound curves, limiting the amount of forging and casting and saving on production costs. Older icebreaker designs focused on protecting the propellers from ice, Raj said. “It’s basically like a blender on a margarita machine.”. Coast Guard officials told us that in addition to price, the shipbuilders HPIB proposals will be evaluated on design factors, including how much the potential design exceeds the threshold icebreaking performance parameters. The high quality standards met by POLAR's high-speed cutters also become evident in the compact class, - cutting machines POLAR D 56 to POLAR D 115. One of the losing bidders, Fincantiari, was teamed with VARD and AKER Arctic. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-C-2210). “The propellers are trying to eat the ice,” Raj said. Costs of building the fourth heavy icebreaker would be less than the costs of designing and building a first-of-class medium icebreaker. This WLOX news article with video also indicates that actual physical construction is scheduled to begin in January of 2021. Polar icebreakers operate under the most inhospitable ocean conditions the world has to offer. The acquisition of Polar Security Cutters is being jointly managed across the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard through an IPO that leverages the expertise and utilizes best practices across each enterprise to deliver a fleet of highly capable, multi-mission ships in the most cost-efficient and timely manner possible. "Model tests at [NSWC, Maryland] will evaluate seakeeping, resistance, powering, and maneuvering performance with the ultimate goal of balancing icebreaking and open-water mobility capabilities." Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Mississippi (61 percent); Metairie, Louisiana (12 percent); New Orleans, Louisiana (12 percent); San Diego, California (4 percent); Mossville, Illinois (4 percent); Mobile, Alabama (2 percent); Boca Raton, Florida (2 percent); and various other locations (3 percent), and is expected to be completed by June 2024. Washington D.C. Metro Area. The Polar Security Cutter solicitation directs offerors to use proven, state of the market technologies and components in their proposals to minimize design risk. 4 In the designations WHEC, WMEC, and WPB, W means Coast Guard ship, HEC stands for high-endurance cutter, MEC stands for medium-endurance cutter, and PB stands for patrol boat. The Navy Arctic Roadmap was created by Task Force Climate Change and most recently revised in 2014 to prepare the Navy to respond effectively to future contingencies, delineate the Navys Arctic region leadership role within the Defense Department, and articulate the Navys support to the National Strategy for the Arctic region. }
The length is 61 ft greater, and the draft is five feet greater. The Coast Guard specs called for an icebreaker that could handle sea state four, marked by between 4-foot and 8-foot swells. Designing a medium-class polar icebreaker in a second shipyard would incur the estimated engineering, design, and planning costs of $126 million and would forgo learning from the first three ships; the learning curve would be restarted with the first medium design. This important, but venerable platform will serve until 2020 but that is only the beginning of the story. 2021. The PSCs mission will be to ensure continued access to both polar regions and support the countrys economic, commercial, maritime, and national security needs.
This was a strong contender because VARD designed the Offshore Patrol Cutter, Fincantiaris Marinette Marine built the Great Lakes icebreaker, Mackinaw, as well as several other Coast Guard progects, and AKER Arctic is a leader in icebreaker design. Of these all-in costs, 75 to 80 percent are shipyard design and construction costs; the remaining 20 to 25 percent cover government-incurred costs such as government-furnished equipment and government-incurred program expenses. The icebreaker designer must allow for extreme loads on the one hand, but must pay attention, like all naval architects, to detail design, with a view toward eliminating structural failures from more subtle causes such as elastic instability, brittle fracture, and fatigue. The USCG Ice Breaker Program Building schedule would begin building in 2019-20. VT Halter Marine image used with permission. Photo: Coast Guard. The IMO Polar Code, which came into force in January 2017 sets out mandatory requirements for all shipping-related matters relating to navigating in Polar waters. The committee estimated that a first-of-class medium icebreaker will cost approximately $786 million. Testing at the NRC's location will take place in the second longest ice-tank in the world, the release noted. Both services have an interest in preserving freedom of the seas, projecting Arctic sovereignty, and supporting scientific research. A unique attribute of the Polar Security Cutter is the length of its midsection, Raj said. The use of design studies is an acquisition best practice influenced by the Navys acquisition experience with the Landing Craft, Utility (LCU) amphibious transport ship and T-AO(X) fleet oiler, which are being acquired under accelerated acquisition schedules. The USCG released draft system specifications in April 2017, a draft request for proposal (RFP) in October 2017, and the RFP for advance planning and detailed design in March 2018. The Coast Guard’s ability to run Arctic and Antarctic missions has been hampered since June 2010, when USCGC Polar Sea (WAGB-11), one of the service’s two heavy icebreakers, suffered a catastrophic engine failure. The Integrated Program Office plans to award a single contract for design and construction of the lead heavy polar icebreaker in fiscal year 2019, subject to appropriations. To expand its icebreaking capacity, the Coast Guard has awarded a contract to shipbuilder VT Halter Marine for the design and construction of a new Polar Security Cutter, a … “We deliberately looked at how workers can get into spaces to fix components at sea,” said retired Marine Corps Brig. In addition to a requirement to develop heavy polar icebreaker designs with expected cost and schedule figures, the contracts require: the awardees to examine major design cost drivers; approaches to address potential acquisition, technology, and production risks; and benefits associated with different types of production contract types. The ship displaces about 33,000-tons fully loaded with accommodations for 186. In July 2011, the Coast Guard provided the Congress the High Latitude Study, on the Coast Guards missions and capabilities for operations in high-latitude (i.e., polar) areas. If advantage is taken of learning and quantity discounts available through the recommended block buy contracting acquisition strategy, the average cost per heavy icebreaker is approximately $791 million, on the basis of the acquisition of four ships. Accommodations (171) are fewer than provided on the Polar Star, but more than provided in Healey. Applying non-material alternatives for crewing and homeporting reduces the overall requirement to four heavy and two medium icebreakers. The High Latitude Study estimated the acquisition cost of the 3+3 mix to be $4.14 billion, while 6+4 would cost $6.93 billion to acquire. The Legend-class cutter, also known as the National Security Cutter (NSC) and Maritime Security Cutter, Large, is the largest active patrol cutter class of the United States Coast Guard.Entering into service in 2008, the Legend class is the largest of several new cutter designs developed as part of the Integrated Deepwater System Program. The bill also calls for an updated Arctic strategy, including regularly updated summaries of regional foreign threats posed by Russia and China, along with specific roles and missions for each branch of the U.S. military. GD's exhibit booth at the 2017 Sea Air Space Symposium displayed a graphic with the two companies' names and an artist's concept of a Coast Guard Icebreaker. The Navy is committed to the success of the heavy icebreaker program and is working collaboratively with our Coast Guard counterparts to develop a robust acquisition strategy that drives affordability and competition, while strengthening the industrial base, said Jay Stefany, Executive Director, Amphibious, Auxiliary and Sealift Office, Program Executive Office, Ships. The Coast Guard has an Arctic Strategy, released in 2013, that has a lot of overlap with its Navy counterpart. The U.S. Coast Guard has only two -- one of which is 10 years beyond its intended use -- compared to Russia's 46. Our nation has an urgent need for heavy polar icebreaking capability. The fourth ship of the heavy icebreaker series is estimated to cost $692 million. The Coast Guard will need three heavy and three medium icebreakers to fulfill its statutory requirements in polar regions, primarily in the arctic, according to the "High Latitude Region Mission Analysis" commissioned by the Coast Guard. Polar Security Cutter Final Programmatic EIS USCG March 2019 Page ES‐iii mobility; (5) protection of natural resources, and (6) ice operations, where polar security cutters … Cost Estimate of Icebreakers $4,704 million for 6 shipsan average of $784 million each. Coast Guard officials stated that based on preliminary analysis, a design that meets the HPIBs objective key performance parameters would be an entirely separate design and would be too costly to construct. The Coast Guard began the acquisition process for a new polar icebreaker and formed an integrated program office with the Navys Program Executive Office Ships and Naval Sea Systems Commands Naval Systems Engineering Office to maintain this capability by building the next generation of these unique vessels. The Polar name is synonymous with quality and at the time of writing there are 85 used Polar guillotines and second hand paper cutters for sale pressXchange. VT Halter Marine Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi, a subsidiary of Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering), was awarded a $745,940,860 fixed-price incentive-firm contract for the detail design and construction of the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Polar Security Cutter (PSC) (formerly the Heavy Polar Ice Breaker). Dec. 18, 2020 - Coast Guard awards polar security cutter communication management system contract Aug. 7, 2020 - Coast Guard releases request for information for polar landing craft March 20, 2020 - Coast Guard Awards Eight Contracts for Offshore Patrol Cutter Industry Studies