The US Coast Guard will invest an additional US$323 million to prepare Coast Guard Base Seattle to be the homeport for the first three new heavy icebreakers to be acquired by the service.
The coast guard expects the facility to be ready by 2030, which is when the the first of the new heavy icebreakers designated as polar security cutters (PSCs) will be delivered.
The additional funding will be used for modernisation, dredging, and construction of new berths that will accommodate the PSCs, US Coat Guard Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday said in a recent hearing at the US Senate.
The PSCs will be the first heavy polar icebreakers to be built in the United States in nearly five decades.
Each vessel will have a length of 460 feet (140.2 metres), a beam of 88 feet (26.82 metres), and a full load displacement of about 36,960 tons. A diesel-electric propulsion system will consist of two generators and two podded azimuthing thrusters.
Work on the PSCs is being performed by Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding (formerly VT Halter Marine) in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the prime contractor for design and construction of the future PSC fleet.
