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 success of icebreaker designs will depend on rugged testing protocols. The lengthened hull allows the Polar Security Cutter to do open water missions and has free space that could be used in the future for science missions, Raj said. The Defense Department awarded a $945.9 million contract to VT Halter Maritime Inc. to design and build a new class of Polar Security Cutter. So, you can see that we have a long body.”. The U.S. Coast Guard has only two -- one of which is 10 years beyond its intended use -- compared to Russia's 46. WASHINGTON, D.C. – By building a heavy icebreaker designed to both withstand the frigid waters and accommodate major maintenance needs, the Coast Guard hopes to avoid the catastrophic failures that have hamstrung the service’s polar missions for a nearly a decade. Gen. Ronald Baczkowski, now chief executive of VT Halter Marine, at last week’s American Society of Naval Engineers Arctic Day 2019 conference.
“We deliberately looked at how workers can get into spaces to fix components at sea,” said retired Marine Corps Brig. 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 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. The cost of repairing Polar Sea would be astronomical to consider, Raj said. Most popular used models for sale are the Polar 115ED, Polar 115 EMC, 115 XT and 115 CE cutters. var script = document.createElement("script");
Costs of building the fourth heavy icebreaker would be less than the costs of designing and building a first-of-class medium icebreaker. Their hull structure sees a variety of loads ranging from those thermally induced to concentrated ice Impact loads to those impossible to design for, such as grounding on uncharted rock pinnacles. For inspiration, the designers looked at the Coast Guard’s current fleet of heavy icebreakers. 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. One of the losing bidders, Fincantiari, was teamed with VARD and AKER Arctic. In January 2018, Commandant Adm. Zuku… d.setTime(d.getTime() + 60 * 60 * 24 * 2 * 1000);
Jan … 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. script.setAttribute("onerror", "setNptTechAdblockerCookie(true);");
The ships would be delivered in Q3 of 2023, Q2 of 2025, and the Q2 of 2026. 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. Presumably displacement will be greater than that of either Polar Star or Healy, over 20,000 tons full load. 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. 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. Accessing the engine for repairs would mean cutting a hole in the hull with no realistic way to patch it when finished. “We said ‘that cannot be repeated’,” Raj said. The initial contract included options for the construction of two additional PSCs. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, District of Columbia, is the contracting activity (N00024-19-C-2210). 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. 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. The maximum speed of 15 knots is less than either Polar Star (18 knots) or Healy (17 knots), but adequate for Coast Guard requiremens. document.cookie = "__adblocker=" + (adblocker ? Projected delivery dates, 2024, 2025, 2027. This is consistent with USCG concepts for the vessel. The ship displaces about 33,000-tons fully loaded with accommodations for 186. The U.S. Coast Guard established the heavy polar icebreaker acquisition program in 2012. The propulsors are based on a Finnish design from ABB and are used on several commercial icebreakers. The 270 yard tank is capable of modelling a wide range of marine ice conditions, including first-year and multi-year ice, pack ice, ridged ice and glacial ice. “So, concentrating on the steel element is an important portion of it.”. Polar Security Cutter Heavy Polar Icebreaker [HPIB] ... will use the results of the studies to refine and validate the draft heavy polar icebreaker system specifications. Follow @Wernertime//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js, Polar Security Cutter Fuses Performance Requirements With Maintenance Needs, Member Services call 800-233-8764 or 410-268-6110, Report to Congress on U.S. Navy Ship Names. 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. 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". An alternative would be a block buy contract. Cost Estimate of Icebreakers $4,704 million for 6 shipsan average of $784 million each. Coast Guard envisions having a single US shipyard build all three ships under a contract with options, as a form of annual contracting. This contract was competitively procured via the Federal Business Opportunities website, with three offers received. This may reflect provision of segregated ballast in the new ship. Icebreaking capability would be equivalent to the POLAR Class Icebreaker Polar Star and research facilities and accommodations equivalent to HEALY. Compared to other heavy icebreakers, the Polar Security Cutter is longer than most because its mission requirements are different. A unique attribute of the Polar Security Cutter is the length of its midsection, Raj said. A U.S. Coast Guard ship cuts through Arctic Ocean ice. 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. 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. Siemens was planning the propulsion and L3 the C4ISR. Washington D.C. Metro Area. GD says VARD is one of the premiere global designers of polar icebreakers. Its engine is buried in the ship, and the exotic high-strength steel used to build Polar Sea’s hull hasn’t been made in decades. 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 … 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 Coast Guard has an Arctic Strategy, released in 2013, that has a lot of overlap with its Navy counterpart. 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. Now, the materials used to build propellers have improved to the point that propellers are part of the icebreaking process. “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. Cost estimate of a first-of-class medium icebreaker is $786 million, with the 4th ship $692 million. 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 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. 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). The Coast Guard awarded the $745.9 million contract to build the Polar Security Cutter in April and delivery is expected in 2024. Instead of using an exotic steal, VT Halter is using a kind of steel commonly rolled in the U.S., Baczkowski said. If all options are exercised, work will continue through November 2027. The study, dated July 2010 on its cover, concluded the following: The Coast Guard requires three heavy and three medium icebreakers to fulfill its statutory missions. “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. Ben Werner is a staff writer for USNI News.
10-05-2019 11:48:36 ZULU. Cost estimate of the 1st heavy icebreaker is $983 million. script.setAttribute("async", true);
In August 2018, Congress passed a National Defense Authorization Act that approved unprecedented funds for the construction of six new polar class icebreakers by 2029. Older icebreaker designs focused on protecting the propellers from ice, Raj said. The heavy polar icebreaker integrated program office, staffed by Coast Guard and U.S. Navy personnel, will use the results of the studies to refine and validate the draft heavy polar icebreaker system specifications. Presumably the crew will be smaller than Polar Star, more in line with Healy. We plan to build six icebreakers for the high-latitudes, at least three of which will be heavy, but we cant be in the Arctic the way America needs us unless we build one now. The 6-3-1 approach underscores the importance of protecting U.S. interests in the Arctic, but the U.S. Coast Guard will continue to lag behind countries such as Russia until that first one is built. Healy is a good deal younger, commissioned in 2000 and capable of ramming through up to eight feet of ice. 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. Icebreaker could enter service in 2023. The Navy identified the organizations working on the icebreaker program in the release as the Coast Guard, US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), and the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) at NRC's St. John's, Newfoundland, ice-test facility. An artist’s rendering of VT Halter Marine’s winning bid for the U.S. Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter. The Coast Guard is receiving $655 million to start construction on the lead ship for a new class of Polar Security Cutter and is receiving an … 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. New Orleans design firm Technology Associates, Inc would modify the design for Coast Guard requirements. Page last modified:
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. Raj said the VT Halter and Technology Associates design has the icebreaker handling up to sea state 7, marked by a stomach-churning 20-foot to nearly 30-foot waves. 3 CRS Report RL34391, Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (Polar Icebreaker) Program: Background and Issues for Congress, by Ronald O'Rourke. Cost Estimate is based on a ship with integrated electric drive, 3 propellers, a combined diesel and gas (electric) propulsion plant.
Fiscal 2019 procurement, construction, and improvement (Coast Guard); and fiscal 2018 and 2017 shipbuilding and conversion (Navy) in the amount of $839,224,287 will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Nominal range (21,500 @ 12 knots) is less than Polar Star (28,275 @ 13 knots), but still generous. The type of steel used to build the icebreaker is also significant. 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. Ship cuts through Arctic Ocean ice premiere global designers of Polar icebreakers operate under the inhospitable. A long body. ” would modify the design for Coast Guard established the heavy Polar icebreaker design and. 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