These heavy polar icebreakers will allow the USCG to perform its statutory missions in the Arctic as well as support the United States Antarctic Program with Operation Deep Freeze.

[6][note 1] In the same year, the USCG's only operational heavy icebreaker at the time, USCGC Polar Sea, was sidelined following engine failure.

[12] In April 2017, a draft system specification as part of a request for information (RFI) in which the USCG sought questions, comments and feedback related to technology risks, sustainability, producibility, and affordability of heavy polar icebreakers.

The contract also included options for the construction of two additional PSCs that, if exercised, would bring the total acquisition cost to $1.9 billion excluding government-furnished equipment.

[19] In its press release on 7 May 2019, Halter Marine stated that it had teamed with Technology Associates, Inc. (TAI) and based its PSC design on the proposed German polar research vessel Polarstern II.

[22] In November 2022, Bollinger Shipyards announced that it would buy VT Halter Marine and oversee the construction of the Polar Security Cutters.

[24] In August 2023, Bollinger Shipyards began steel cutting for eight "prototype modules" for the first Polar Security Cutter.

[3] When subcommittee chair Carlos A. Giménez asked why the Polar Security Cutter design was only 67% complete after five years of work, a Government Accountability Office witness explained that nothing like the Polar Security Cutter has been built in the United States in 50 years; American shipbuilders have no recent experience building large icebreakers.

The general design is reportedly based on the proposed German polar research vessel Polarstern II which has been modified and adapted to USCG requirements such as long open water transit from its home port to Antarctica.