US Awards $745Mln For Construction Of Polar Ice Breaker - Pentagon

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published April 24, 2019 | 04:00 AM

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th April, 2019) The US Department of Defense said in a press release that it has awarded a $746 million contract to VT Halter Marine Inc. to build a new Polar ice breaker.

"VT Halter Marine Inc., Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a $745,940,860 fixed-price incentive-firm contract for the detail design and construction of the US Coast Guard (USCG) Polar Security Cutter (PSC) (formerly the Heavy Polar Ice Breaker)," the release said on Tuesday.

The project is expected to be completed by June 2024, the release added.

This ship is the first of three expected to be built in the coming years.

The Coast Guard and Navy are planning to invest up to $9.8 billion to build and maintain three heavy polar ice breakers to conduct missions in the Antarctic and Arctic.

The United States currently has one operating ice breaker ship, the Polar Star, which is reaching a point of providing limited services by 2020. This will leave the United States without an ice breaker for at least three years.