Icebreaker ‘Aiviq’ to Join U.S. Coast Guard Before End of Year to Bolster Arctic Presence

By Malte Humpert (gCaptain) –

Commercial Polar icebreaker Aiviq will join the U.S Coast Guard inventory before the end of the calendar year, officials announced during a Congressional hearing on Capitol Hill. The service had requested $125m for FY2024 to acquire the Aiviq from Offshore Service Vessels, part of Edison Chouest Offshore, but few updates on the status of the endeavor had been announced.

“We are making tremendous strides. It’s painted about a quarter of the way in Coast Guard icebreaker red and it’s underway today with a team from the owners doing an evaluation and we’ll get on the vessel in the coming weeks,” confirmed VADM Thomas Allan, in front of the House Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

AIS tracking data confirm the vessel departing from Pascagoula, Mississippi on November 13. It is currently sailing in coastal waters east of New Orleans. 

Aiviq will bolster the U.S. presence in the Arctic in the short-term while the service awaits construction of the first Polar Security Cutter.

“It will be in the Coast Guard inventory before the end of this calendar year and we will be sailing that up into the Arctic in 2026,” expanded VADM Allan.

The Coast Guard is expecting to spend an additional $25m to make improvements to the vessel before it enters into service. Officials noted that they are confident the Aiviq will fit the service’s needs. 

“We are taking a vessel that has successfully operated in the Arctic,” VADM Allan confirmed. Aiviq will be homeported in Juneau, Alaska.

Officials also announced progress on the much-delayed Polar Security Cutter program. Design maturity reached 80 percent as of early September, up from 67 percent in May. They expect maturity to be somewhat higher during the final procurement readiness review later in November.

During previous hearings Coast Guard leadership had indicated beginning of construction before the end of the year. According to VADM Allan the service will seek DHS approval for a final production decision by mid-December, with construction to begin shortly thereafter.  

VADM Allan acknowledged that construction will begin without having 100 percent design maturity, counter to the GAO’s repeated recommendations. “But we will have achieved substantial compliance with GAO recommendations,” he highlighted.

Funding remains a significant challenge for the Coast Guard. “We do not have sufficient funding to complete the first Polar Security Cutter,” said VADM Allan. “The question is how much more do we need and we will better understand what that dollar amount is and what gap exists by the end of the year.”

Delivery of the first PSC is now expected not before 2030, while completion of the second and third planned PSC could take until 2040 at current pace, both committee members and USCG officials agreed. The U.S. hopes that the recently agreed-upon ICE Pact for icebreaker collaboration with Canada and Finland will speed up construction.

The Coast Guard’s ongoing challenges come at a time when both Russia and China have been stepping up their Arctic engagement and expanding their capabilities.

“Between July and October the Coast Guard monitored three Chinese research vessels operating above the U.S. extended continental shelf as well as a PRC surface action group and a separate Russian Federation surface action Group,” VADM Peter Gautier warned.

“For the first time we also witnessed a joint surface action group.”

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