Trump's ambitious icebreaker plans are taking shape.

Trump continues to push forward an ambitious icebreaker construction program, attempting, if not to catch up with Russia in quantity, then at least to keep pace. The US Coast Guard has awarded another contract for icebreaker construction.

According to a press release from the agency, the U.S. Coast Guard has awarded contracts worth $3,3 billion for the purchase of six polar icebreakers. According to the document, these will not be pure icebreakers, but rather Arctic Security Cutters (ASCs). Four of the ships will be built by Bollinger Shipyards Lockport of Louisiana, and the other two by the Finnish company Rauma Marine Constructions.

It's worth noting that initial agreements with both shipyards were signed last year, paving the way for design work to begin. Now, the main construction agreements have been signed. The US Coast Guard plans to receive all six icebreakers by 2031, with the first ship scheduled for delivery in 2028.

For now, the US plans to expand the Arctic fleet Up to 11 ice-class ships, and simultaneously explore the construction of heavy icebreakers at American shipyards. Currently, the Americans lack this capability.

Currently, the United States has only one operational icebreaker: the heavy USCGC (United States Coast Guard Cutter) Polar Star. A second icebreaker, Polar Sea, has been out of service since 2010 due to a propulsion failure. The icebreaking tug Aiviq, which was refitted and renamed USCGC Storis for Arctic operations, is also in operation.

Comments

[Rockerman]

They'll build it and get it, unfortunately, no doubt about it. There might be a shift to the right, but it'll be small.

[Evgeny64]

Well, the Finns, yes, will deliver both icebreakers on time, they have experience, we have ordered from them before, but again, these are icebreakers... well, at the level of our "captains" (Sorokin, Nikolaev, Khlebnikov... I can't remember them all) this is last century, this is literally even according to our designs.
They haven't built icebreakers at their own shipyards for ages. A "shift to the right" is understandable, but the outcome remains to be seen, and even if it does, it's nothing more than an attempt to catch up, and a half-hearted one at that. We'll build just as many nuclear-powered icebreakers in that time, and there's no mention of anything similar. They're not considered "real" icebreakers right now, serving auxiliary functions in the Arctic and doing real work in the Far East and Baltic.

[exo]

The Finns built the Vaygach and Taimyr for us. Both were nuclear-powered. So, they're well-experienced. As for the reactors, the Yankees will make them.

[Evgeny64]

Once again, if you're too lazy to read, they built it at Vyartsilya, but the designs are ours, and the Yankees have absolutely no experience designing nuclear icebreakers and civilian reactors.
They are not even trying, they are trying to make diesel-electric icebreakers, not even linear ones.
What did you want to say in response if you were answering me and not just saying it?

[exo]

The point is that if the Americans ask, the Finns have the skills to build nuclear reactors. It's quite possible they even have the construction documentation, as a basis for a new project. The US built reactors for submarines, cruisers, and aircraft carriers. They're no less technologically advanced than we are. So, they'll do it.

[Evgeny64]

A cruiser, a submarine, and an icebreaker are very different designs, and their reactors and everything else are different. The experience of building submarines is of little use in building an icebreaker. No one doubts that if they want to, they will build one. God doesn't make pots, but the effort, time, and resources are significant.

The Finns built the Vaygach and Taimyr for us. Both were nuclear-powered. So, they have plenty of experience.

The Finns built the Taimyr and Vaygach, river icebreakers designed for work in river estuaries, particularly on our Yenisei River. They operate constantly, escorting steamships to Dudinka. They are unsuitable for guiding ships along the NSR, and their experience in building them would be of little use to them in building a linear icebreaker.

[vitaliy20091959]

The contours for our nuclear power plants were made by the Finns, but Lenin was completely independent, except for the main power plant.

[Evgeny64]

Yes, I do not want to What a discovery, damn, live and learn, it turns out the Finns are the only ones in the world who build nuclear icebreakers.
Damn, "Ermak" was probably designed in Estonia... or in Ukraine, as they teach there now, I don't know.

[Evgeny64]

Just for the sake of education, so that no one accidentally thinks that the Finns actually had anything to do with this:

The vessel's chief designer was V. I. Neganov. The nuclear power plant, comprising three OK-150 reactors, was designed at the Experimental Design Bureau of Gorky Shipyard No. 92, with I. I. Afrikantov as chief designer. The hull steel grades AK-27 and AK-28 were developed specifically for the icebreaker at the Prometey Institute. Due to the new nature of the equipment and the complexities of the engine room layout, a full-scale wooden mockup was created to test design solutions.

The icebreaker was laid down on August 25, 1956, at the Andre Marty Shipyard No. 194 (now the Admiralty Shipyards) in Leningrad. The chief architect was V. I. Chervyakov. The ship's turbines were manufactured by the Kirov Plant, the main turbogenerators by the Kharkov Electromechanical Plant, and the propulsion motors by the Leningrad Electrosila Plant. In total, more than 500 Soviet enterprises participated in the icebreaker's construction, developing 76 new types of mechanisms and 150 new types of equipment.

It's worth reading something other than Harry Potter, otherwise I wouldn't be surprised if they wrote here that the first satellite was launched by the Egyptians and manufactured by the Mongols.

[LaraM]

Is the Polar Star a diesel-electric icebreaker? Does the US even have a single nuclear-powered icebreaker? The article is poorly written.

[rocket757]

Only Russia has a nuclear-powered icebreaker... and by the way, only we have a heavy-class icebreaker...
Although, if you look into it... they didn't do this not because they couldn't, they didn't need it, as they thought... they don't have an emergency medical service...

[ABC-schutze]

"According to a press release from the agency, the US Coast Guard has signed contracts for the purchase of six polar icebreakers worth $3,3 billion..."
***********************************************
Long laughed ...

If half a dozen "polar icebreakers" could be built (or purchased) for 5 billion dollars, even the most wretched border states would have them. In reality, the "Trump" labeled sucker is merely habitually feigning "activity"...

The aforementioned U.S. "ice-class" patrol vessel is far from a mainline (multi-purpose) nuclear-powered icebreaker from Russia's polar fleet. And it's not even a "linear" non-nuclear icebreaker for northern latitudes, a "river-sea" type. It's also, just in case, multi-purpose...

Better yet, let the gringos practice building a "fleet" of rather meager ice-class corvettes, with the primary mission of searching for and destroying Russian submarines (and possibly diesel-electric/non-diesel submarines) in the North Atlantic and the seas off the West Coast. They're currently "straining" their entire NATO-EU forces on this. Canada, along with so-called "Europe," announced a "construction program" for 13 hulls. They've already "built" a "joint fighter," as I understand it, with the help of their "leading powers," the Fatherland and the Gallipoli...

[rocket757]

It's obvious that they're not building cheaply and cheerfully, but rather something that's neither this nor that... they're doing what they can, for what purpose it's needed.

[napalm]

The bit is bitten. To rush. However, it’s bad.

[bayard]

Quote: napalm

To rush. Bad, though.

Where are they rushing to? They're just trying to get going. They'll build light/medium-class patrol icebreakers. Diesel ones. They're for Alaska. When they order 15-20 of them (and they're already thinking about it), then maybe they'll "rush." ​​But for now, it's still unclear how they'll manage. They haven't had much luck with frigate construction. And building icebreakers is a very specific business.

[Grossvater]

The Americans don't have icebreakers not because they're so stupid and incompetent, but because they don't need them. For Russia, the icebreaker fleet ensures logistics for the entire country, because if not along the NSR, then around the world. For the US, whether through the Northwest Passage or through Panama, the distance is comparable. For them, sailing around Alaska is like shearing a pig. Lots of squealing, little wool.
So they won't build anything serious.

[topol717]

Quote: Grossvater

Sailing around Alaska is like shearing a pig. Lots of squealing, little wool.

What about around Greenland?

[KCA]

What are they hoping for, fools? The Papanin is already operational, the Zubov is scheduled for delivery next year, and they've only just begun the design and are already setting delivery dates. They only have one icebreaker in service, while we have many, many, many. Adding missile silos, I think, isn't such a big deal. And if we add silos to the nuclear ones, oh, Trump will immediately abandon his desire to acquire Greenland.

[lukash66]

An ice-class vessel and a nuclear-powered icebreaker are two different things. Sailors, am I missing something?

[Mouse]

How, Lord forgive me... A reproductive organ with a finger.... B

[APASUS]

Where are the nuclear icebreakers? Trump is practically in a tiff with Stubb, promising to produce dozens. Something went wrong?

[lukash66]

Quote: APASUS

Where are the nuclear icebreakers? Trump is practically in a tiff with Stubb, promising to produce dozens. Something went wrong?

The Finns built some of the hulls for us, didn't they? It's clear that the hull isn't everything. 😀 What I'm getting at is that they have the skills.

[APASUS]

Quote from: lukash66

The Finns built some of the hulls for us, didn't they? It's clear that the hull isn't everything. 😀 What I'm getting at is that they have the skills.

We were building diesel-electric icebreakers entirely and exclusively on nuclear powered ones, like the Taimyr type, and building hulls

[Mouse]

These will not be "clean" icebreakers.

And so....breed......

[AllX_VahhaB]

The US Coast Guard has awarded contracts for the purchase of six polar icebreakers.

Such?

[mr wolf]

Quote: Grossvater

The Americans don't have icebreakers not because they're so stupid and incompetent, but because they don't need them. For Russia, the icebreaker fleet ensures logistics for the entire country, because if not along the NSR, then around the world. For the US, whether through the Northwest Passage or through Panama, the distance is comparable. For them, sailing around Alaska is like shearing a pig. Lots of squealing, little wool.

I basically think the same, but they didn't need an icebreaker fleet. In light of climate change and the development of the Northern Sea Route, they're desperate to control it too. This fleet isn't needed for escorting ships. These troughs will most likely be of semi-military, if not outright military, use. These are just some of the assumptions...

[mr wolf]

Quote: APASUS

Quote from: lukash66

The Finns built some of the hulls for us, didn't they? It's clear that the hull isn't everything. 😀 What I'm getting at is that they have the skills.

We were building diesel-electric icebreakers entirely and exclusively on nuclear powered ones, like the Taimyr type, and building hulls

I don't know about the others, but the world's first nuclear-powered icebreaker, the Lenin, was designed and built entirely in Leningrad. My father participated in its construction. Consider the capabilities of the USSR: in 1953, a decree was passed to build an icebreaker; in 1954, the deadlines, stages, and contractors were determined. It was launched in late 1957, and by 1960, it had already arrived at its home port of Murmansk. Today, such a feat seems like science fiction...

[Tests]

Mr. Wolf (Yuri), sir, malicious tongues claim that during the construction of the Lenin, the quality of the reactor vessel welds was checked using ultrasound. They allegedly didn't want to use X-rays. Poor quality welding of stainless steels to each other and to "ferrous" steels led to leaks in the vessels of reactors No. 3 and No. 1, which were discovered in 1965-66. The result: in September 1967, the Lenin's hull was blown up, and the reactors sank to the bottom of the Kara Sea in Tsivolki Bay, off Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya. On September 26, the Lenin was towed to Murmansk and docked on October 5. Work to restore the bottom and install outboard fittings under the new modernization project was completed on November 20, 1967. At 5:20 PM on December 12, 1967, tugboats moored the not-at-all-nuclear icebreaker Lenin to the pier on Yuzhnye Yagry Island in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk Region. The piers on Yagry Island belonged to what was then the Zvezdochka Marine Shipyard. Zvezdochka repaired the nuclear-powered icebreaker for Lenin's anniversary. On April 21, 1970, at 11:30 PM, the new reactors were launched. It was for this feat of labor that Zvezdochka received the Order of Lenin... Nowadays, such a feat hardly seems out of this world. After all, in the late USSR, a finance and credit specialist with a second law degree couldn't swagger around as Minister of Industry and Trade at Zvezdochka and Sevmash, promising shipyard managers that he would work with the Russian Ministry of Defense to ensure that shipbuilding and ship repair workers in Severodvinsk (in the Far North, with the pension reform from the Pedagogical Russia) would earn the same wages as shipbuilders and ship repairers in St. Petersburg, and that Severodvinsk's enterprises would have orders... The newest tugboat, Project 23470, Alexander Stepanov, arrived at the Pacific Fleet, while its sister ship, Kapitan Ushakov, which sank on August 9, 2025, near the outfitting berth of the Baltic Shipyard, is being towed from the Neva, but the defective managers of the Yaroslavl Shipyard are unable to pull it out...

[nordscout]

The irony is that Arctic seas can be navigated using diesel-electric propulsion... The main issue is not propulsion, but the efficiency of its use and the navigational and technical support for this propulsion, as well as the availability of a developed coastal support system for Arctic sea areas, and the NSR in particular.

[amr]

Quote: ABC-schütze

Long laughed ...

You should cry, they build aircraft carriers like boats, they have Starlinks and space, if necessary, they will build icebreakers and take over the Northern Sea Route!!! And of course you laugh, Comedy Club, Crooked Mirror, YouTube and the Internet were invented precisely for this, just to make you laugh!

[igorra]

Okay, so they'll build icebreakers, but when will they hire the specialists to operate them? The Arctic and clean waters are two very different things.

[Glagol1]

Well, they're not exactly icebreakers; they can just navigate through ice. Nothing more. We have one such ship, the Ivan Papanin, and they're building two more. It's Project 23550. 9000 tons. With a helicopter. So let them build one. We'll make our own.