The U.S. Coast Guard will be gaining 11 new Arctic Security Cutter icebreaking ships with a reported value of $6.1 billion, following execution of a memo of understanding between the United States and Finland. The deal was formalized at a White House meeting between President Trump and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who issued a comment celebrating “cooperation benefits both countries”.
"We're buying the finest icebreakers in the world, and Finland is known for making them," Trump said during the White House event.
Under the MOU, Finnish shipbuilders will supply four Arctic Security Cutters: the Finnish firms with that capability are Helsinki Shipyard and Rauma Marine Constructions, but how they will be involved has not been announced.
The first new ASC is expected for delivery by 2028.
Following that, seven more comparable ASCs will be built by U.S. shipyards, Davie Defense (three ships) and Bollinger Shipyards (four ships), according details made available by the White House. Neither manufacturer has confirmed these details.
“The U.S. administration has negotiated directly with companies,” Stubb noted in a social media post.
ASC vessels are important to the Administration’s defense priorities, but the USCG has only two available currently.
U.S. defense strategy calls for new ASCs, which are medium-duty icebreakers, to patrol the Arctic region together with four to five larger, Polar Security Cutters. U.S. shipbuilders are building the PSCs, but ASCs are the specialty of the Finnish yards – and acquiring them had been thought to be challenged by the Jones Act, a maritime law that requires vessels carrying goods between U.S. ports to be U.S.-built, U.S.-owned, U.S.-crewed, and registered and operated under U.S. law.
In August – on the occasion of commissioning a new, larger Polar Security Cutter ship, the USCG Cutter Storis – the Coast Guard detailed: “Five China-affiliated research vessels operated in the Arctic region over the summer and Storis was one of several Coast Guard assets deployed to the U.S. Arctic to control, secure, and defend U.S. territory and sovereign interests. The Coast Guard is the only U.S. surface presence in the Arctic and works in conjunction with U.S. Northern Command and Alaskan Command to constantly monitor foreign vessels operating in and near U.S. waters in support of U.S. homeland defense and security operations.”
