An artist’s rendering of VT Halter Marine’s winning bid for the U.S. Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter. VT Halter Marine image.
US Naval Institute News Service reports that the first Polar Security Cutter (Heavy Icebreaker) contract has been awarded to VT Halter, and it is notably cheaper than initial estimates. Cost is actually not a lot more than for a National Security Cutter. The contract includes options for two additional ships, if all options are exercised total contract would be $1.9B.
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Was really hoping for Philly to nab this one (or a chunk of it). Ah well, here’s hoping VT Halter’s numbers hold up.
Philly yards lack capital (which goes to financial responsibilty eval factor). May not be able to do the whole program?
Probably need 9 or 10 altogether?
The most recent analysis said 6: 3 Heavy and 3 Medium. Been a lot of talk about saving $ on designing a second class by just buying 6 Heavy, but so far it’s just talk.
I think we will see six of a single class, particularly since the marginal cost of successive ships will come down. VT Halter will have its Congressional supporters.
Hope so, Chuck, but I’m a terrible cynic at the moment.
I’m a bit surprised about their selection, so it’ll be very interesting to see what kind of design they are proposing.
Well, it didn’t take long for a side view to turn up:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6526621529113976832
It’s of course an artist’s view only.
Whoa nelly she’s not a looker. FMM’s bid certainly still tops in the aesthetics race.
The USNI story has been updated with an artist’s port bow depiction of the new icebreaker (different from the one Tups found, same ship, but from a different angle). Used the image to replace the previous photo used with this post. https://news.usni.org/2019/04/23/vt-halter-marine-to-build-new-coast-guard-icebreaker
Incidentally, I don’t see any weapons on the depiction.
‘Fitted for, but not with’
Someone suggested to me the RFP called for reserved weight and space.
@FDD, that is supposed to be the case.
I did expect it to have a least 25mm Mk38 as built.
Ah but it does have several cranes!
@Lee, Thought you would like that. Maybe space for containers too.
Who is providing the propulsion/engines?
Have not seen anything on this yet, but suspect it will be Rolls-Royce.
The azimuthing propulsor in the 3D rendering is clearly ABB’s Azipod – the Fincantieri rendering, on the other hand, had a mechanical Z-drive thruster from either Rolls-Royce or Steerprop. It’s quite easy to tell them apart, and you can’t really swap one for the other without redesigning the aft ship structures.
As for the power plant, I’d put my money on Wärtsilä, MaK/Caterpillar or MAN in that order. 4-6 main diesel generators ought to be enough.
Tups is certainly more knowledgeable about this than I. Thanks, Tups.
No problem. It’s still just speculation, though, as we don’t have more detailed technical information about the vessel. However, the publicly-available figure for displacement (33,000 long tons full load) seems too big for the given main dimensions (460 by 88 feet) and I’m suspecting it’s a typo; a more realistic figure would be around 23,000-25,000 tons.
Here is some updated info from USNI, about the contract competition.
Craig Hooper had some posts on Twitter not long ago implying a couple potential bidders steered clear over various issues with the program.
Interesting article about VT Halter: https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2019/04/29/an-invigorated-and-hungry-vt-halter-marine-disrupts-u-s-government-shipbuilding/#742d08d051ab
Why Huntington Ingalls sat out final competition. Also some thoughts on transitioning from NSC to the FFG(X). https://news.usni.org/2019/05/02/budget-concerns-led-huntington-ingalls-to-sit-out-coast-guard-icebreaker-contest
I assumed budget uncertainty was the likely culprit.
HII already has a bunch of oars in the government waters. If there is one contract with a high likelihood of evaporating after they had made capacity adjustments/investments to proceed, it would be the USCG polar ice breaker
Halter Marine is buying Danish Welding Robots for the Polar Security Cutter Project. https://www.marinelog.com/shipyards/shipyard-news/halter-marine-invests-in-customized-robotic-welding-solutions/