Page 30: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2026)

SHIPBUILDING

DESIGNING THE FUTURE DESIGNING THE FUTURE

AMERICAN

ICEBREAKING

Inside Seaspan Shipyards’ e? orts to help accelerate the U.S. Coast Guard’s Arctic Security Cutter program.

By Greg Trauthwein or decades, conversations about rebuilding the Unit- linger Shipyards in the United States will also construct the ed States Coast Guard icebreaker ? eet have largely Arctic Security Cutters, much of the engineering foundation centered on budgets, politics and the strategic neces- comes from Canada’s Seaspan Shipyards and its experienced sity of maintaining a credible presence in the Arctic. engineering team led by Senior Vice President of Engineer-

FLess frequently discussed is perhaps the most critical ing Jim Carr. Through a licensing agreement built around ingredient of all: engineering maturity. Seaspan’s Multi-Purpose Icebreaker (MPI) design, the Coast

Building a modern heavy icebreaker is among the most Guard is leveraging years of engineering development instead technically demanding challenges in commercial or naval of beginning with a clean sheet of paper, a decision that could shipbuilding. Hull forms must balance open-water e? ciency signi? cantly reduce technical risk while accelerating delivery.

with brutal icebreaking capability. Propulsion systems must For Carr, the project represents the culmination of a career spent survive impacts measured in hundreds of tons. Every mechan- designing some of the most complex naval platforms ever built.

ical, electrical and structural system must function in some of the harshest operating environments on earth. Success de-

FOUR DECADES OF DESIGNING pends not simply on building ships, but on getting the engi-

COMPLEX WARSHIPS neering right before the ? rst steel is cut.

Carr’s résumé reads like a history of modern naval shipbuild-

That reality explains why one of the most consequential ele- ing. Beginning his career at Bath Iron Works, he worked on ments of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Arctic Security Cutter (ASC) the Arleigh Burke destroyer program, managed the Flight IIA program is occurring largely behind the scenes.

upgrades, helped lead engineering on the LPD-17 amphibious

While Rauma Marine Constructions in Finland and Bol- transport dock, served as technical director on the Littoral Com- 30 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • August 2026

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