Bollinger Shipyards, Lockport, La., announced Dec. 10 that it has named two retired U.S. Coast Guard officers to lead its program to build a series of icebreaking Arctic Security Cutters (ASC) for the Coast Guard.
The appointments of retired Cmdr. Mark Matta as director of programs and retired Capt. Peter Morisseau as Arctic Security Cutter program manager follow the October selection of a Bollinger-led international team to design and build six ASC for the Coast Guard. The program will use a multipurpose icebreaker design and include parallel construction in Finland and the United States.
“The Arctic Security Cutter is one of the most consequential shipbuilding programs in Coast Guard history, and it’s also one of the most time-sensitive,” said Ben Bordelon, president and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards. “For more than a decade, our team has delivered the Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter — over 60 hulls, each one on time and on budget — and that’s the proven production muscle we’re now bringing to ASC. President Trump has been very clear. These ships are needed in the water, not on the drawing board. Mark and Pete will leverage the decades of expertise of our Bollinger family to create a stable platform from day one and deliver world-class vessels to the Coast Guard and help protect the sovereignty of our nation.”
Matta said lessons from previous Coast Guard cutter programs would be applied to the new icebreakers. “On the Fast Response Cutter program, we have proven you can take a clean design, lock in the configuration and reliably deliver a ship that Coast Guard crews trust from day one,” he said. “That same discipline is what we’re bringing to the Arctic Security Cutter. These ships have to work the first time, every time, in some of the harshest conditions on earth. Our focus is simple – leverage four decades of experience building and delivering nearly 200 vessels for the U.S. Coast Guard to hit the White House’s timeline while delivering a vessel of the highest quality to serve for decades to come.”
Morisseau said Bollinger’s track record aligns with expectations for the program. “Since originally working on the 87' CPB program, I have seen Bollinger deliver a steady drumbeat of cutters that showed up on time and ready to sail,” he said. “That’s exactly the kind of performance senior leaders in Washington are counting on for the Arctic Security Cutter.”
Matta brings more than 40 years of experience in Coast Guard shipbuilding, testing, operations, maintenance, and logistics. He served 28 years on active duty and five years as a civil servant before joining Bollinger 12 years ago. During his Coast Guard career, he served on seven cutters across multiple classes and worked at nearly every Coast Guard shipbuilding Project Resident Office. At Bollinger, he has overseen programs including the Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter and the U.S. Navy’s Mine Countermeasures Unmanned Surface Vessel.
Morisseau joined Bollinger after a 25-year Coast Guard career, most recently serving as commanding officer in Pascagoula, Miss., with oversight of approximately $8 billion in shipbuilding programs. His experience includes leadership roles on the Polar Security Cutter and National Security Cutter programs, delivery of a 418' National Security Cutter, and acquisition of a commercial vessel converted into the Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Storis.
The ASC program is expected to produce 11 medium polar icebreakers designed to support all 11 statutory missions of the Coast Guard. Early construction will take place in Finland and the United States, with a planned transition to full-rate production at U.S. shipyards under the trilateral ICE Pact between the United States, Canada, and Finland.
Bollinger Shipyards, with Rauma Marine Constructions and Aker Arctic Technology Inc. of Finland, and Seaspan Shipyards in Canada were selected to design and build six ASCs (two in Finland and four in the U.S.), and Canadian shipbuilder Davie and its Helsinki Shipyard in Finland will build five ASCs (two in Finland and three at Davie's new shipbuilding facilities in the Texas).
