US Coast Guard Polar Icebreaker 5 Years Behind Schedule, $2Bln Over Budget

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - 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.