Posted on June 17, 2026
The United States Coast Guard will station its new Arctic Security Cutters (ASC), which are the service’s next-generation medium icebreakers, closer to where the ships will operate. Finland’s Rauma Marine Constructions will deliver the first two ASCs by 2028, and the U.S. Coast Guard will homeport them in Alaska — the first time the service will base its Arctic vessels in the state.
The U.S. Coast Guard homeports its current icebreaker fleet at Coast Guard Base Seattle in Washington state, according to Stars and Stripes newspaper. The decision to base the ASCs in Alaska highlights how the Arctic has become a “front line of strategic competition” as Russian and Chinese forces expand their presence in the region, according to a February 2026 report by the Atlantic Council. The distance from Seattle to the Arctic port city of Nome, Alaska, is 2,500 nautical miles, according to a report in the October 2025 issue of Joint Force Quarterly. The distance from Juneau, Alaska, to Nome is about 950 nautical miles), according to Nauticalculator.com.
“By strategically positioning these state-of-the-art icebreakers in Alaska, the Coast Guard will maximize our ability to defend our northern border and approaches, while reinforcing America’s maritime dominance in a crucial region of strategic importance,” U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Kevin Lunday, Commandant of the Coast Guard, said in an April 2026 statement.
The U.S. Navy sends submarines under the Arctic ice, but it doesn’t operate icebreakers, which is the Coast Guard’s mission. The U.S. Coast Guard is conducting a sweeping expansion of its Arctic fleet after the U.S. Congress passed a federal budget reconciliation bill in 2025 that included nearly $9 billion for medium and heavy icebreakers. The current operational U.S. open-ocean fleet consists of three ships: the heavy icebreaker USCGC Polar Star and medium icebreakers USCGC Healy and USCGC Storis. The service plans to build 11 of the ASCs through contracts with Rauma Marine Constructions and two U.S. shipbuilders, Bollinger Shipyards (Louisiana) and Davie Defense (Virginia), according to Stars and Stripes. The U.S. Coast Guard also is procuring three new heavy icebreakers called Polar Security Cutters (PSCs). Bollinger is building the first PSC, and the shipbuilder plans to deliver it in 2030, according to The National Interest defense journal.
The ASC and PSC programs are crucial for maintaining U.S. sovereignty in the Arctic, Coast Guard officials say. “We need more icebreakers to be present in our waters and be clear what is our waters,” U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Corey Kerns, commander of the Storis, told the Alaska Beacon newspaper in November 2025.
The U.S. Coast Guard has not decided where in Alaska to base the two new ASCs or even if it will keep them at the same port, according to Alaska Public Media. The service is investing $300 million for port improvements in Juneau to accommodate the Storis, according to The Maritime Executive, an industry publication. The U.S. Coast Guard commissioned the Storis, a former oil company vessel that it bought and modernized, in August 2025. The service said the Juneau installation will begin operations when new vessels arrive, according to The National Interest defense journal.
“Homeporting these two Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska is a decisive step forward in securing America’s Arctic frontier,” Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said in a U.S. Coast Guard statement.
