North Vancouver’s Seaspan sells ship design for icebreaker to U.S. Coast Guard
Seaspan is providing the same design it has drawn up for the Canadian Coast Guard under Canada’s national shipbuilding strategy for U.S. Coast Guard Arctic Security Cutters
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North Vancouver’s Seaspan Shipbuilding has been tapped to provide the design for a fleet of new U.S. Coast Guard icebreakers as part of a contract that has been in the works since last summer, the company said Wednesday.
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It’s the same design for a multi-purpose icebreaker that Seaspan has been working on since 2020 for the Canadian Coast Guard under the federal national shipbuilding strategy. Canada wants to buy up to 16 of them, with the first to be delivered by 2030, within a $14.2 billion program.
However, Seaspan also teamed up with American Bollinger Shipyards Lockport LLC and Finnish Rauma Marine Constructions Oy, the winning bidder for a U.S. Coast Guard contract to build six of the icebreakers, to be designated Arctic Security Cutters, with the first to be delivered by 2028.
On Wednesday, the shipyards announced they had signed final agreements to provide Seaspan Shipbuilding’s design and supply-chain packages to the U.S. program. Financial terms of the contract for the design were not disclosed.
Seaspan Shipyards CEO John McCarthy called the design “a true success story” under the national shipbuilding strategy that is now paying off for Canada as part of a tripartite pact it signed with Finland and the U.S. last fall aimed at bolstering the icebreaker-building capabilities of all three countries.
“The interoperability resulting from a common design and supply chain between the Canadian and American coast guard fleets will create countless opportunities for collaboration through the vessels’ operational lives,” McCarthy said in a news release.
No one from Seaspan was available for an interview, but in its email statement, the company said the sale of its design technically falls outside of Canada’s national shipbuilding strategy, but the contract counts as the first export sale from a Canadian shipyard.
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“One of the goals of the (national shipbuilding program) is to rebuild the shipbuilding industry and associated ecosystem, and for Canadian shipyards to become internationally competitive and generate Canadian exports,” the statement reads.
Also, with its design, Seaspan selected many of the technical systems and equipment suppliers, including Canadian companies, which will be in the supply chain for the U.S. and Finnish shipyards building icebreakers for the U.S. Coast Guard, the statement said.
Both Canada and the U.S. are stepping up efforts to increase their ability to operate in Arctic waters year-round with countries such as Russia and China seeking greater influence in the resource-rich region with its increasingly important shipping routes.
The U.S. Coast Guard awarded its contract to the shipyards Dec. 29 and, in a news release, said the six icebreakers it’s buying will enable it to secure and control U.S. Alaskan borders and give it the mobility it needs to respond to crises in the Arctic.
“Our adversaries continue to look to grow their presence in the Arctic,” U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in the news release. “Equipping the coast guard with Arctic Security Cutters will help reassert American maritime dominance there.
“Revitalizing the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaking capabilities is crucial for our security and prosperity and today’s announcement is an important step in that direction.”
In its news release, Seaspan said Finland’s Rauma Marine will build two of the U.S. icebreakers, with Seaspan’s ready-for-production design, with the first delivery expected in 2028. Bollinger will build four, with its first delivery expected in 2029.
The Canadian shipyard is scheduled to begin construction on the first of six multi-purpose icebreakers in 2027, according to Seaspan’s email statement.
The company, in 2025, started work on one of two heavy polar icebreakers capable of year-round Arctic operations, which is scheduled for a 2032 delivery. The Chantier Davie shipyard is responsible for building the other for an expected delivery in 2030.
Seaspan’s design for the multi-purpose icebreaker, which was developed in partnership with Finnish firm Aker Arctic Technology Inc., is for a 100-metre-long icebreaker capable of operating in 1.2-metre thick ice with a range of 22,000 kilometres.
Wednesday’s announcement, however, comes after U.S. President Donald Trump’s most recent call for an American takeover of Greenland, the independent territory of NATO ally Denmark, as a priority for U.S. national security.
Those statements prompted Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to declare that the future status of the mineral-rich territory remains with Greenland and Denmark, and the U.S. “has no right to annex” it.
European allies France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the U.K. added their voices of support to Denmark’s statement that “Greenland belongs to its people.”
On Wednesday, the office of Canada’s minister of public services and procurement, Joel Lightbound, said Canada’s commitment to the icebreaker collaborative effort remains with advancing Canada’s interests in the Arctic.
“The collaboration supports Arctic security while anchoring investment and design work in Canada, and increasing the capabilities of Canada’s shipbuilding industry,” Lightbound’s press secretary Leela Polushin said in a statement in response to Postmedia questions.
“Our government will continue to engage internationally in ways that reinforce Canada’s sovereignty and reflect the realities in a changing Arctic.”
