Photos of a model of Halter Marine’s Polar Security Cutter seen at Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exhibition have surfaced. Chris Cavas put the photos on Twitter.
Thanks to Walter for bringing this to my attention.
Photos of Polar Security Cutter Model
Chuck Hill's CG Blog
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
Models have a special place. You can walk around a ship. Look at drawings. Look at photos. But a model gives you a special view.
It would be very interesting to compare the capabilities of the new Polar Security Cutter with those of the Chinese and Russian new models, especially in terms of armaments, range, flexibility, and support capacity.
I’m more interested in will it do what we need it to. For sure, no reason to chase Russia. They need more from their ships than we do in this space.
What I see is a lot more straight lines than I usually see on an icebreaker. The long transit requirements and the desire to make the ship handle rough seas give us the long center section of almost straight parallel sides and a boxy hull section rather than the hemispheric cross section of earlier icebreakers. Look at the old Wind class. You would have a hard time finding a straight line anywhere in the hull shape, other than the deck.
Modern icebreakers are indeed “flatter” than their predecessors. When I gave lectures about icebreaker technology at the university, I used USCGC Glacier as a good example of a “classic” icebreaker hull:
While there’s a number of acceptable reasons for this development (producibility and seakeeping, for example), the PSC is taking it perhaps a bit further than previous-generation vessels such as USCGC Healy. One of the explanations might be that the designers have had to maximize the displacement within the “main dimensions box” that the USCG has given them.
Hmh, apparently there was something wrong with the link. Let’s try again but if it doesn’t work, just google for “uscgc glacier body plan” and you’ll find a high-resolution scan from Wikimedia Commons.
There are of course more curves below the water line.
Of course. With the exception of a few outliers built largely out of flat plates and hard chines, modern icebreakers still make use of fairly complex (from shipyard’s point of view) hull geometry in the icebreaking bow and particularly in way of azimuthing propulsion units. The largest difference to “classic” icebreakers is the flat bottom and side. In the PSC, in particular the latter is quite long at waterline level where most ice contact occurs.
Interestingly, I’m seeing a little bit of S-shape in the bow waterline in the fourth photograph – perhaps it’s just the perspective or perhaps it’s an intentional design feature. The Arctic LNG carriers have something similar:
Such geometry will result in slightly higher ice resistance but improves open water performance and seakeeping. I’d say if it’s intentional, it’s justified as the PSC has a long open water transit from its homeport to Antarctica…
Don’t see a multi-function radar. That is a little surprising. Would have thought we would want that for air ops.
As for armament, I see two Mk38 mounts (gray), starboard forward of the bridge and aft to port atop the hangar, and six mounts for .50 caliber (black), two forward of the bridge, two abreast the funnels, and two all the way aft at the corners of the stern.
Based on the placement, it appears that the loadout of Mk38s could double. It will be interesting to see if they are launched with them as a permanent fit.
Another story about this
https://www.navalnews.com/event-news/sea-air-space-2021/2021/08/sea-air-space-2021-vt-halter-marine-unveils-polar-security-cutter-design-for-uscg/
I have to wonder about the purpose of the small deck houses on either side of the fantail?
I saw that too. Other than a platform for the .50 cals, I though it odd. Maybe they’re also to be used for MANPADS, with missiles and ammo stored underneath. It would give them a pretty decent field of fire. Or it could be a location for future placement of CIWS. Your guess is as good as mine.
More likely they are for streaming research systems.
I believe that the Chinese ice breakers are equipped with missile capabilities? Is that correct?
We have not seen the Chinese mount missiles on their icebreakers so far. Conceptional drawings of a new class of small icebreakers built for the Russian Navy included surface to surface cruise missiles in containers, but so far we have not seen them equipped this way.
Chuck Given the support logistics of the Arctic, I would hate to get into any conflict and be seriously outgunned. Fred Sent from my iPhone
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