As climate change accelerates and maritime access to the Arctic Ocean grows, a new landscape of collaboration, innovation and urgency emerges. In response to rising geopolitical tensions, environmental challenges and the increasing strategic importance of polar regions, Canada, the United States and Finland have committed to a historic trilateral agreement: the ICE Pact (Icebreaker Collaboration Effort). This agreement isn’t just about building ships – it’s about building partnerships, capabilities and resilience in an unpredictable world.
The Strategic Imperative: Why Polar Icebreakers and Why Now?
The Arctic is warming at nearly four times the global average. As a result, sea ice is thinning, and navigable waters are opening for longer periods each year. While this offers economic opportunities – from shorter shipping routes to untapped natural resources – it also brings new risks. Search and rescue, sovereignty enforcement and maritime emergencies all require a significant presence in the far North.
Yet, much of North America’s current fleet of heavy icebreakers is aging rapidly. Canada’s CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent, the Canadian Coast Guard’s only operational heavy polar icebreaker, was first launched in 1966. In the U.S., the Polar Star – commissioned in the 1970s – faces similar limitations. Both countries recognize that replacing and modernizing these aging fleets is not optional. It is essential.
That’s where the ICE Pact comes in. Announced in July 2024, this agreement is designed to enhance polar icebreaker shipbuilding through cooperation in policy alignment, knowledge sharing and industrial collaboration.
As the Honourable Bill Blair, Minister of National Defence, stated, “This agreement between Canada, the United States and Finland will increase cooperation between our 3 nations and will support our collective economic, climate and national security priorities in the Arctic.” With its legacy of Arctic shipbuilding excellence, Finland is a key partner, bringing world-class expertise and shipbuilding capacity to the table.
But turning that vision into reality requires more than political will and shipyard capacity – it demands the right digital infrastructure to manage complexity across borders, timelines and disciplines.
This is where SSI plays a vital role. Our digital shipbuilding solutions are already powering the United States’ next-generation polar icebreaker program – providing the backbone for managing design, engineering and lifecycle data across a distributed network of stakeholders. By enabling a shared digital foundation, we help ensure that every requirement is met, every change is tracked and every milestone stays on course. As the ICE Pact moves from vision to execution, this kind of connected, collaborative framework will be indispensable.
Canada’s Bold Move: Investing in Polar Class Vessels
Canada is already acting on the spirit of the ICE Pact by investing in new heavy polar icebreakers. Two separate contracts were awarded in 2024 under Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy: one to Seaspan’s Vancouver Shipyards and another to Quebec-based Chantier Davie Canada Inc. The goal? Deliver two of the most advanced polar-class vessels ever built, capable of navigating through multi-year Arctic ice while supporting scientific research, emergency response and Arctic sovereignty missions.
Finland’s involvement deepens this collaboration. Helsinki Shipyard is taking on the construction of one of these new vessels, with final assembly and delivery set to take place in Quebec. This level of multinational shipbuilding demands seamless coordination across oceans, time zones and digital environments.
The Role of Digital Innovation in Icebreaker Construction
As exciting as these developments are, they introduce tremendous complexity. How do we ensure that international teams of engineers, designers, shipyard workers and government stakeholders remain aligned over a multi-year, multi-nation build process?
The answer lies in a digital foundation – a shared environment that allows all parties to work from a single source of truth, track changes in real time and ensure that the vessel’s requirements are met from concept to launch.
The scale and complexity of modern polar icebreaker programs – particularly those involving international collaboration – demand more than traditional approaches to shipbuilding. These are not just ships; they are highly specialized, mission-critical vessels with long lifecycles and exacting performance requirements.
Designing and building them requires coordination across multiple disciplines, organizations, and borders. Engineering teams must work seamlessly with shipyards, regulatory bodies, and procurement authorities. Specifications must be managed with precision, updates must be traceable, and all changes must align with technical, regulatory, and operational requirements from concept through to construction and delivery.
Meeting these demands requires a shared digital foundation – a secure, collaborative environment where stakeholders can work from a single source of truth. This is especially vital for polar class vessels, where design decisions directly impact a ship’s ability to operate safely in extreme Arctic conditions and meet coast guard or national defense mission parameters.
Key digital requirements for a successful multi-national icebreaker program include:
- Real-time collaboration across locations and between shipyard and coast guard, with strict version control to avoid costly misalignment.
- Accurate digital twins that replicate the vessel’s evolving design and performance characteristics.
- Integrated regulatory workflows to ensure compliance with polar class standards and facilitate reviews by classification societies.
- Design validation tools that catch interferences early and reduce rework during construction.
- A complete digital thread that links data across the entire lifecycle – from initial concept and construction through to in-service support and upgrades – ensuring continuity, traceability, and informed decision-making at every stage.
As the ICE Pact nations align their efforts, the ability to capture, share, and act on complex design and production data is critical. Digital infrastructure isn’t just an enabler – it’s foundational to managing risk, meeting performance goals, and delivering vessels that can withstand the polar environment and fulfill their long-term missions.
Collaboration That Lasts Beyond the Build
One of the less-talked-about but equally critical goals of the ICE Pact is sustainability, of not just the Arctic environment, but also the polar icebreaker shipbuilding industry itself. In recent decades, American shipbuilding and Canadian shipyards have faced challenges with workforce continuity, industrial readiness and technology adoption.
The ICE Pact offers a platform to revitalize this sector with a long-term outlook. By committing to collaborative, digitally enabled production pipelines, Canada, the U.S. and Finland are future-proofing their shipyards and their talent pipelines. Digital shipbuilding helps onboard and upskill new workers more efficiently, supports remote training and ensures consistency across distributed teams.
Moreover, digital solutions enable continuous improvement. Lessons learned on the first heavy icebreaker in a series can be immediately applied to the next. Design changes are easier to manage. Feedback loops shorten. Costs come down. Capabilities go up.
This is not just good for the ICE Pact – it’s a model for how allied nations can work together to solve shared problems more efficiently.
U.S. Polar Icebreaker Programs: A Parallel Track
While Canada advances its own polar-class investments, the United States Coast Guard is making progress on its next-generation heavy polar icebreaker through the Polar Security Cutter program. Originally awarded to VT Halter Marine (now Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding), this initiative is central to restoring U.S. polar capability after decades of limited development.
What sets the Polar Security Cutter program apart is how it’s being built. Both Bollinger Shipyards and Genoa Design International are leveraging SSI’s digital shipbuilding tools to manage the complexity of designing and constructing one of the most advanced icebreakers ever undertaken. Their work highlights a crucial truth: in projects of this scale and strategic importance, digital collaboration, real-time coordination and smart lifecycle planning aren’t just helpful — they’re essential.
Like its Canadian counterpart, the U.S. program faces the challenge of coordinating design, production and logistics across multiple stakeholders. Leveraging a digital foundation ensures alignment, reduces risk and helps both nations stay on track toward Arctic readiness.
As part of the broader ICE Pact vision, shipyards across North America and Europe are now better positioned than ever to build interoperable assets that support joint operations in the polar regions.
The Finnish Edge: Design Leadership from Aker Arctic and Helsinki Shipyard
Finland’s contribution goes beyond assembly lines. With decades of experience designing and delivering icebreakers, Finnish firms like Aker Arctic are setting new standards for icebreaker design. Helsinki Shipyard has also been instrumental in delivering modern polar-class vessels capable of navigating the harshest environments.
As part of the ICE Pact, Finland’s design insights and operational knowledge will be critical to optimizing hull forms, propulsion systems and features like the moon pool – a vertical shaft used for deploying research equipment below the ice. This level of design integration can only happen through strong digital workflows and open collaboration.
Looking Ahead: Strength Through Innovation and Allies
The ICE Pact represents more than a shipbuilding agreement – it’s a shared vision for building a resilient Arctic presence. By aligning industrial capabilities, design leadership, and digital innovation across borders, Canada, the United States and Finland are strengthening sovereignty, enhancing security and promoting environmental stewardship in the polar regions.
The pieces are in place. Now it’s time to execute.
Delivering complex, multi-national vessels like polar class icebreakers will demand more than cutting-edge engineering – it will require shared digital environments, interoperable workflows, and a unified digital thread that connects every stage of design, construction and in-service support.
For SSI, this moment reflects everything we’ve been building toward: a globally connected, digitally enabled and strategically aligned approach to shipbuilding. We’re proud to support the kind of collaboration the ICE Pact makes possible – where distance, complexity and national boundaries no longer limit what we can achieve together.
The Arctic may be warming, but our resolve is stronger than ever. Through innovation, partnership, and purpose-built digital foundations, we’re not just building ships – we’re helping build the future of polar capability.