Bollinger ready to vie for US, Canada, Finland icebreaker contracts

Bollinger Shipyards announced Thursday that its Pascagoula Mississippi shipyard now exceeds 1,000 employees, touting the milestone as it gears up to make the first heavy icebreaker in the U.S. in more than 50 years – vessels Washington is keen to produce more of as it partners with Canada and Finland in a pact to bolster icebreaker fleets.

The three countries announced the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact, in a joint statement during the NATO summit in Washington on Thursday. The trilateral agreement aims to build “best-in-class Arctic and polar icebreakers and other Arctic and polar capabilities in each of our respective countries by sharing expertise, information, and capabilities.”

The pact aims to “leverage shipyards” in all three countries to build the icebreakers by collaborating on information sharing and workforce development while encouraging allies and partners to buy the vessels from those states.

“We are seeing an increasing need for those icebreakers from partners around the world who want to operate in both the Arctic and the Antarctic region and can operate there with greater freedom than before because of the impacts of climate change,” said National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

“There are authoritarian nations that are offering icebreakers to the world who want to corner the icebreaker market. We’re determined to have democracies in the lead and producing icebreaker capabilities.”

Sullivan noted that “both Canada and Finland have considerable experience in shipyards and producing icebreakers.”

The U.S. operates two Polar icebreakers, both of which are nearing the end of their usable life.

“The U.S. is currently producing icebreakers for our Coast Guard, but we would like to expand that to include building icebreakers here in the United States – American-made, American-jobs to sell to countries around the world as well,” said Sullivan. “We then will have the industrial base for a capability that has economic and strategic purposes.”

The Coast Guard is already working with Bollinger to build the first Polar Security Cutters.

“As the premiere builder of American-made polar icebreakers, Bollinger Shipyards is proud to support the United States and our NATO allies with our deep expertise and capacity,” said CEO Ben Bordelon. “We have made, and will continue to make, significant, long-term investments in our facilities, infrastructure and workforce.

“Our goal is to create a world-class American-owned shipyard capable of producing the first fleet of American-made polar icebreakers in over half a century, and we’re honored that responsibility lies with Bollinger.”

Bollinger touted the 1,000-worker benchmark as “a substantial reversal of a decade-long trend of declining employment under the Pascagoula facility’s previous owner.”

Competition for employees among shipyards in the Gulf of Mexico is fierce , with employers vying to hire for positions ranging from engineers to welders to a whole host of other positions from a limited workforce pool.

The Biden administration in 2022 released a 10-year Arctic strategy that calls for the procurement of additional icebreakers as a key pillar.

The strategy emphasizes deterring increased Russian and Chinese activity in the region as global warming rapidly melts the polar ice caps, drastically transforming the environment.

Bryant Harris is the Congress reporter for Defense News. He has covered U.S. foreign policy, national security, international affairs and politics in Washington since 2014. He has also written for Foreign Policy, Al-Monitor, Al Jazeera English and IPS News.

博林格造船厂周四宣布，其位于密西西比州帕斯卡古拉的造船厂员工人数已超过 1000 人，并以此为里程碑，准备建造 50 多年来美国第一艘重型破冰船——华盛顿热衷于生产更多此类船只，因为它与加拿大和芬兰合作，签署了一项协议，以加强破冰船队。

三国在周四于华盛顿举行的北约峰会期间发表联合声明，宣布启动“破冰船合作计划”（ICE Pact）。这项三边协议旨在通过共享专业知识、信息和能力，在各自国家建设“一流的北极和极地破冰船以及其他北极和极地能力”。

该协议旨在通过信息共享和劳动力发展方面的合作，利用这三个国家的造船厂建造破冰船，同时鼓励盟友和伙伴从这些国家购买船只。

“我们看到，世界各地的合作伙伴对破冰船的需求日益增长，他们希望在北极和南极地区开展业务，并且由于气候变化的影响，他们可以比以前更自由地在那里开展业务，”国家安全顾问杰克·沙利文说。

“有些专制国家向世界提供破冰船，企图垄断破冰船市场。我们决心让民主国家在破冰船制造领域占据主导地位。”

苏利文指出，“加拿大和芬兰在造船和制造破冰船方面都拥有相当丰富的经验。”

美国拥有两艘极地破冰船，这两艘破冰船都已接近使用寿命的终点。

“美国目前正在为海岸警卫队生产破冰船，但我们希望扩大生产规模，包括在美国本土建造破冰船——美国制造，美国就业，还能将破冰船出售给世界各国，”苏利文说。“这样一来，我们将拥有具备经济和战略意义的工业基础。”

美国海岸警卫队已与博林格公司合作建造首批极地安全巡逻舰。

“作为美国制造的顶级极地破冰船建造商，博林格造船厂很荣幸能凭借我们深厚的专业知识和能力为美国及其北约盟国提供支持，”首席执行官本·博德隆表示。“我们已经并将继续对我们的设施、基础设施和员工队伍进行重大的长期投资。”

“我们的目标是打造一家世界一流的美国本土造船厂，能够生产半个多世纪以来第一支美国制造的极地破冰船队，我们很荣幸这项重任落在了博林格的肩上。”

Bollinger 将 1000 名员工的里程碑称为“帕斯卡古拉工厂前任所有者经营下长达十年的就业人数下降趋势的重大逆转”。

墨西哥湾造船厂之间的员工竞争非常激烈，雇主们争相从有限的劳动力市场中招聘从工程师到焊工等各种职位的人才。

拜登政府于 2022 年发布了一项为期 10 年的北极战略，该战略的关键支柱之一是采购更多破冰船。

该战略强调遏制俄罗斯和中国在该地区日益增长的活动，因为全球变暖正在迅速融化极地冰盖，从而剧烈改变环境。

布莱恩特·哈里斯是《防务新闻》的国会记者。自2014年以来，他一直在华盛顿报道美国外交政策、国家安全、国际事务和政治。他还曾为《外交政策》、《Al-Monitor》、《半岛电视台英语频道》和IPS新闻撰稿。