The Coast Guard announced Wednesday that it will homeport its newest icebreaker — a commercially acquired ship to be adapted for homeland security — in Juneau, Alaska, as its 27-year-old Arctic icebreaker aborted its summer deployment following an electrical fire.
The vessel currently known as the Aiviq should be operational in 2026, according to a service announcement Wednesday. While the Coast Guard previously had said it favored Juneau as the ship’s home station, officials said as recently as June that it had not received funding to build the infrastructure needed in the Alaskan capital.
Wednesday’s announcement made it official, however.
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“As we continue to build the Polar Security cutters, acquiring a commercially available polar icebreaker will enable the Coast Guard to increase our national presence in the Arctic, and homeporting this cutter in Alaska demonstrates the service’s steadfast commitment to the region,” Coast Guard Vice Commandant Adm. Kevin Lunday said in a statement.
The reveal follows a summer deployment cut short for the Coast Guard’s only medium ocean-going icebreaker, the Healy. The ship suffered a fire in late July — its second in four years — Lunday said during a panel hosted by the Brookings Institution on Aug. 7.
During the event, Lunday said that if the Healy’s deployment ended early, the country…
