Coast Guard agrees to contract for new class of arctic cutters

The service has agreed to two other Arctic Security Cutters agreements — one with Rauma Marine Constructions of Rauma, Finland, for two cutters and another with Bollinger Shipyards of Lockport, Louisiana, for four additional cutters — though those have yet to be finalized.

“Finalizing this contract represents decisive action to guarantee American security in the Arctic,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard. “The Arctic Security Cutters will deliver the essential capability to uphold U.S. sovereignty against adversaries’ aggressive economic and military actions in the Arctic. These cutters will ensure the Coast Guard’s ability to control, secure and defend our northern border and maritime approaches.”

Icebreakers are vessels with reinforced hulls and powerful machinery designed to push through ice-covered waters. These boats are crucial for Arctic navigation, sometimes clearing the path for other ships to follow.

One of the few cutters currently operational, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis, returned to its home port in Seattle, Washington, earlier this week after a 36-day patrol in the Bering Sea. Storis was the first icebreaker to enter U.S. military service in over two decades when it was commissioned last year.

Last October, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum declaring that the United States “faces an urgent and growing threat in the Arctic region posed by strategy competition, aggressive military posturing, and economic encroachment by foreign adversaries,” and the current fleet “of icebreakers and Arctic-capable vessels remains insufficient to meet current operational demands and presents a national security risk.”

The U.S. has more than 95,000 miles of shoreline and 25,000 miles of navigable rivers, and it’s the Coast Guard’s role to protect maritime transportation, safeguard and regulate ports, and lead the country’s drug interdiction efforts.