The US Coast Guard has awarded a contract worth up to US$6.13 million to 1000 Island Airboats of Marion, Wisconsin, for up to 10 ice rescue boats for service on the Great Lakes.
The boats bear the designation special purpose craft – ice rescue transport second generation (SPC-IRT II). The coast guard said the first order, valued at US$4.9 million, includes eight 25-foot (7.6-metre) boats, along with specialised transport trailers, operator training and technical data support.
Its performance period spans three years. The coast guard expects the first two boats to be delivered in December 2026.
The SPC-IRT II will replace older aluminium-hulled ice rescue boats nearing or at the end of their service lives. The new boats will be assigned to coast guard stations at Cleveland and Marblehead in Ohio, Saginaw River in Essexville and Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan, and Sturgeon Bay in Wisconsin.
"These new boats will provide coast guard crews a dependable, mission-ready capability to conduct search and rescue operations and all-hazard missions in the challenging winter environment of the Great Lakes," said Rear Admiral Russell Dash, Commander of the Coast Guard Great Lakes District.
The contract, structured as an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, firm-fixed-price agreement, was competed as a total small-business set-aside, and two quotations were received.
In its earlier request for information, the coast guard asked prospective builders whether their designs could travel at least 1,000 yards (900 metres) over grass, dirt, snow, or ice without hull damage and cross two-foot (0.6-metre) ice compression ridges. The coast guard also asked whether the boats could drop from a two-foot ice shelf into open water with six people aboard without plunging the bow.
1000 Island Airboats said its rescue airboats feature a six-stringer composite hull with embedded flotation, a UHMW polymer bottom, and a hydraulic ice brake to help free the boat from ice.
