Polar Icebreakers May Be Key to Jumpstarting American Shipbuilding New Report Finds

The recently-signed ICE Pact, focused on the development of icebreakers, represents a unique opportunity to revitalize American shipbuilding, a new report by the Wilson Center, a think tank, finds. It could function as a test-bed for shipbuilding and policy innovation. 

“If successful, ICE Pact will serve as a model for how government procurement programs for military vessels can act as an important tool of industrial policy to help U.S. shipyards sell vessels to a wider array of customers,” the report concludes.

U.S. shipyards face a formidable challenge to revitalize American shipbuilding and seapower in a world increasingly dominated by Chinese shipbuilders. Shipyards in China accounted for 75 percent of new commercial ship orders in 2024.

A key headwind for U.S. builders are the complex acquisition and contracting rules combined with the lack of long-term funding stability. The ICE Pact, short for Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, between the U.S., Canada, and Finland looks to combine the strengths and capabilities of their respective shipyards.

“The ICE Pact is the start of a procurement-to-production on-ramp that will help bend downwards the cost of building ships in America,” says William Henagan, one of the report’s authors and technical advisor at the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute. 

Polar icebreakers can help overcome American shipbuilding inertia, according to the report. Apart from the fact that the U.S. is in dire need of a dozen or more heavy and medium icebreakers, the vessels’ high-tech and complex nature represents an opportunity to rebuilding American shipbuilding competitiveness in high quality vessels, rather than attempting to compete with China on low-tech, low-value vessels. 

Thus far procurement and lead-up to construction of the Polar Security Cutter, as the Coast Guard’s new heavy icebreaker is called, has been anything but smooth, with more than half a decade passing from contract signing to the first steel being cut.

But a clear signal from the U.S. government for the procurement of a fleet of icebreakers in the present can help put American shipyards in a position to participate in the market for a growing global demand of icebreakers – estimated between 70-90 – in the future. And in the medium-term that new expertise could translate to competing for international military and commercial dual-purpose vessels. 

President Trump recently stated that the U.S. will be looking to order 40 big icebreakers for the Coast Guard. Even a firm commitment and funding for a fraction of this lofty goal would send a key signal.

“Sustained U.S. government focus on the production of vessels like icebreakers, undersea construction vessels, unmanned underwater vehicles, and undersea cable and repair ships remains the clearest route to putting near-term ‘points on-the-board,” the Wilson Center report highlights.

“The best tool we have today to strengthen the shipbuilding industrial base in America is procurement, but we also need new government investment, adjustment to trade policy, and changes in labor policy. We need to force military service branches to think about industrial policy — not just following bureaucratic procedures to put warships on the water,” Henagan concludes.

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