Cryosphere = those parts of the earth where water is in solid form.
From Sixty Degrees North, May 6:
There’s a lot to catch up on here, so I’ll get right into it.
Alaska homeported cutter earns cutter of the year award...
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Polar Star Returns from Operation Deep Freeze, Begins Maintenance Period....
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Polar Security Cutter Program Updates
Bollinger awarded more money for first PSC
Back in March, U.S. Naval Institute News reported:
A Mississippi shipyard has been awarded a $951.6 million contract to adjust for cost increases for the first Polar Security Cutter, USNI News has learned.
Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding won the contract modification from Naval Sea Systems Command in partnership with the Coast Guard to account for cost and schedule increases for the first Polar Security Cutter — the future USCGC Polar Sentinel —that is set to be built at the company’s Pascagoula shipyard, a Coast Guard spokesperson told USNI News Thursday.
If you’re keeping track, the contract to build the first PSC was awarded in April of 2019. According to that initial $745.9 million fixed-price contract, construction was scheduled to begin in 2021 with delivery in 2024, with incentives for a 2023 delivery.
In 2021, the cost estimate was revised up to about $1.3 billion for the first PSC.
In 2024, the Congressional Budget Office issued its own cost estimate, placing the cost of the first PSC at about $1.9 billion.
The last official delivery date I’ve heard is still 2030 for the first PSC, with the second vessel in 2032 and the third in 2034.
Coast Guard to Begin Full Production Activities for Polar Security Cutter....****
Potential Deal with Finland?
In mid-April, Finland’s largest newspaper ran a story based on three sources stating that a Finnish shipyard was in negotiations to build up to eight icebreakers- five ‘medium’ for around 2.5 Billion Euro, and thee ‘heavy.’....
....MUCH MORE
Meanwhile Russia's eighth nuclear-powered giant just joined the fleet:
Latest nuclear-powered icebreaker steams north
This class of ships can cut through 9 feet of ice at a continuous slow walking speed.
The one you want coming to save you if you are really stuck is the much older and recently damaged "50 Years of Victory" which can handle slightly thicker ice in continuous movement and because of its rounded bow can ram and ride up on ice over 10 feet thick.
The next Russian class is being designed to bust through 14 feet of ice.
