Trump tax bill sends new icebreaker fleet into melting Arctic
Shrinking sea ice in Alaska in particular means more commercial ships would be traveling through or fishing the area, requiring more Coast Guard patrols.
"This historic investment marks a new era for the Coast Guard," Coast Guard Acting Commandant Admiral Kevin Lunday said in a statement.
The Coast Guard currently only has one heavy icebreaker, the USCGC Polar Star, and it's almost 20 years beyond its expected service life.
The Coast Guard's other icebreaker, the 27-year-old medium-duty USCGC Healy, has suffered repeated fires. Last year the Coast Guard cancelled its planned Alaska-area patrols due to an engine-room fire, according to officials.
Global tension: Greenland not for sale. It is welcoming Americans with direct flights. On Trump's birthday
Russia operates multiple nuclear-powered icebreakers, which U.S. defense officials say gives it an advantage in the strategically crucial region.
Coast Guard officials have been warning for years they lack the necessary ships to properly patrol icy waters, which include shipping routes between the United States and Canada in the Great Lakes, along with serving Alaska and the Antarctic research base McMurdo Station.
Alaska Native people living along the shores of the Bering Sea worry increasing shipping and resource extraction pose environmental dangers, especially if the Coast Guard lacks the resources to patrol the area.
Trump has vowed closer American oversight of both northern Canada and Greenland.
When free of ice, the fabled Northwest Passage connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific via the Bering Sea - a 40% shorter route for ships to travel from Asia to Europe compared to using the Panama or Suez canals.
Federal officials worry that China is increasingly collaborating with Russia in the area, which is rich in both oil and rare Earth minerals necessary for computer chips and other technology. Greenland in particular is seen by Trump as a contested area where climate change is melting ice sheets and opening new areas for mining.
The Arctic Institute, a nonprofit think-tank based in Washington, D.C., has long lobbied for more Coast Guard icebreakers, given the potential for how climate change will alter shipping, fishing and mining in the polar regions.
The institute has called the United States "woefully behind" other Arctic-adjacent countries when it comes to icebreaker construction, and said opening up the Arctic without adequate icebreakers is akin to playing baseball without bats.
The Coast Guard already has one large icebreaker under construction, but that project has seen signifcant costs overruns and delays of more than a year for completion.
The nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office said in a December 2024 analysis that the Coast Guard might end up paying billions more than planned for that ship and two others that have already been authorized. They might be ready sometime in the mid-2030s, the GAO said, while the first ships authorized by the new Trump spending might not be operational until the 2040s.
The White House wants to increase domestic shipbuilding capacity but in the interim, the Coast Guard last year bought a used oil exploration ship that will be extensively renovated, renamed and deployed in Juneau, Alaska.
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