U.S. Coast Guard to Receive 11 New Icebreakers Under Landmark Finland Deal

Following months of speculation about Finnish shipyards building icebreakers for the U.S. Coast Guard, details of the deal emerged following a meeting between U.S. President Trump and his Finnish counterpart Alexander Stubb.

The cooperation will result in the construction of eleven medium-size polar icebreakers, also called Arctic Security Cutters.

In order to speed up the expansion and modernization of the aging U.S. icebreaker fleet, the first four vessels will be built in Finland, with an additional seven ships constructed by U.S.-based facilities.

A win-win deal?

In a deal that seemingly only has winners, two different consortia with competing designs had thrown their hats in the ring over the past year.

Canadian company Davie Shipbuilding and its Helsinki Shipyard pitched the Multi-Purpose Polar Support Ship MPPS-100, a modern fourth generation design revealed earlier this year. 

In total Davie is expected to build five MPPS for the U.S. Coast Guard with the two initial vessels by the Helsinki yard, and three more at the yet-to-be-constructed Texas facility. Davie will be investing $1bn in a Galveston, Texas-based icebreaker factory. 

The two-tired structure will enable construction to begin immediately in Finland following contract signing allowing the U.S. Coast Guard to receive two ASC by 2028. It also gives Davie sufficient time to launch its Texas operation for the subsequent three vessels.

A second cooperation consisting of American Bollinger, Canadian Seaspan and Finnish Rauma Marine Constructions follows a similar structure. Icebreaker designers Aker Arctic are also part of the team.

In total this consortium will build six ASC based on the Multi-Purpose Icebreaker MPI design, originally specced for the Canadian Coast Guard. The vessel was designed by Aker and Seaspan will construct up to 16 vessels for the Canadian Service.

Under the Trump-Stubb deal Rauma Marine will build the first two vessels in Finland with a third being constructed simultaneously by Bollinger in the U.S. Three more vessels will then also be built in the U.S. afterwards.

Similarly to the Helsinki yard timeline, the first three Rauma Marine-Bollinger vessels are expected to be delivered within 36 months of contract signing.

Massive turnaround for the USCG

Together this would mean the U.S. Coast could receive five ASC icebreakers by the end of 2028, a massive turnaround to more than a decade of delays. Delivery of the initial larger-size Polar Security Cutter, under construction in Louisiana, has been pushed back into the 2030s.

It is important to note that no contracts have yet been signed, despite Bollinger referring to the MoU as “contract award” in its press release. In contrast Davie’s Helsinki Yard explicitly emphasized in its announcements that the exact number of vessels and cost are yet to be determined. 

This aspect is expected to follow in the next 60 days according to the MoU signed during Stubb’s White House visit. Crucially the document includes Trump’s waiver of domestic-build requirements allowing for up to four vessels to be contracted abroad valid for a period of four years. 

White House officials said the entire eleven vessel order would have a value of $6.1bn. It is unclear how the potential costs for the ASC align with the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaker appropriations. The USCG received $3.5bn in funding for acquisition of ASC and $4.3bn for PSC. 

In its fact sheet accompanying the icebreaker announcement the Trump White House seemingly used the term “Arctic Security Cutter” to encompass all sizes of vessels, including heavy icebreakers.