US Coast Guard unveils first polar icebreaker in more than 25 years

Coast Guard performs daring sea ice rescue

Rescuers found two people after they fell through thin ice on Lake Erie. 

PASCAGOULA, Miss. - The U.S. Coast Guard’s newest polar icebreaker is officially operational, which the agency says will bolster its Arctic operations.

The 360-foot-long icebreaker departed from its assembly port in Pascagoula, Mississippi and was headed to Seattle, where it will be based until renovations are completed at its homeport in Juneau, Alaska.

Icebreakers clear passages through icy waterways in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and are known to aid in search and rescue missions as well as support scientific research operations.

Similar-sized ships are known to break up ice that is upwards of 21 feet thick, due to their reinforced hulls and bows, with engines capable of producing a significant amount of horsepower.

"The vessel is manned with a hybrid crew consisting of military cuttermen and civilian mariners," the agency said in a statement. "This is the second vessel in Coast Guard history to bear the name Storis. The original Storis, known as the ‘Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast,’ had a storied history conducting 64 years of icebreaking operations in Alaska and the Arctic before being decommissioned in 2007."

ANTARCTICA’S ‘DOOMSDAY GLACIER’ IS MELTING AWAY DIFFERENTLY THAN SCIENTISTS FIRST THOUGHT

The USCGC Storis will join the USCGC Polar Star and the USCGC Healy as part of the Polar Security Cutter Program. 

Both of the other icebreakers have faced challenges due to their age, with the Healy recently experiencing a significant fire, while the 50-year-old Polar Star was taken out of service for necessary repairs.

"Our national security interests in the Arctic have also never been more critical, demonstrated by the joint Russian and Chinese naval and air task forces that have operated off Alaska’s coastline these past two years. Since coming to the Senate, I’ve been working relentlessly to wake up our federal government to the strategic importance of this region," Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan previously said in a statement.

WORLD’S LARGEST ICEBERG ON POSSIBLE COLLISION COURSE WITH ISLAND IN SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN

The Coast Guard says its fleet of large icebreakers must double or even triple in size to meet growing operational demands.

"Russia has 55 icebreakers and is in the process of building more," Alaskan legislators previously stated. "By 2025, China, which has no sovereignty over any Arctic waters, is set to surpass the United States’ icebreaker fleet. The Alaska congressional delegation has long since recognized this as a competitive disadvantage in the Arctic and advocated for additional resources to bolster the USCG icebreaker fleet."

The newly acquired vessel is expected to support missions later in the year, although a specific deployment schedule was not released.