Bollinger teams up with Edison Chouest Offshore to deliver ‘next-generation’ icebreakers

The icebreaker USCGC Healy (WAGB 20) keeps station while conducting crane operations alongside a multi-year ice floe for a science evolution in the Beaufort Sea, Aug. 9, 2023. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Briana Carter)

WASHINGTON — Bollinger Shipyards and Edison Chouest Offshore today announced a strategic partnership called the United Shipbuilding Alliance (USA) that the companies say will expedite the “design, construction, and delivery of next-generation icebreakers.”

“The United Shipbuilding Alliance is proof that American industry can and will deliver faster, better, and more cost-effectively, by aligning commercial innovation with national security priorities,” Bollinger Shipyards President and CEO Ben Bordelon said in a press release.

Likewise Gary Chouest, president and CEO of Edison Chouest Offshore, said the move “represents a significant evolution in America’s capacity to rapidly address urgent Arctic operational requirements.”

Bordelon cited President Donald Trump’s vocal call for great US shipbuilding capacity, including icebreakers. “I am excited by [Trump’s] efforts to reinvigorate America’s shipyards,” he said.

To that end the release said the alliance has responded to the Coast Guard’s April 11 Request for Information on medium-sized icebreakers as part of the Arctic Security Cutter program. Icebreakers in the Arctic Security Cutter program are meant to operate in parallel with the larger Polar Security Cutters in the High North and Antarctic.

Trump has repeatedly called for the purchase of 40 icebreakers in recent months, though the Coast Guard has suggested that would likely involve a combination of the eight or nine Arctic and Polar Security Cutter vessels along with a host of smaller icebreakers not meant for Arctic waters. The US currently operates one heavy polar icebreaker, a medium polar icebreaker, a recently acquired converted commercial polar icebreaking vessel, and more than two dozen smaller icebreaking-capable vessels that can operate in the Great Lakes and elsewhere in North America.

Last week, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure approved a reconciliation package that included nearly $5 billion for medium-sized Arctic Security Cutters as well as “domestic” icebreakers. The package also included $4.3 billion for the larger Polar Security Cutters. 

Bollinger Shipyards in late March was awarded a $951 million contract modification under the Polar Security Cutter program to deliver a heavy polar icebreaker. That ship is scheduled for delivery in May 2030.