SC Alaska News

U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has expressed support for a new agreement between the United States and Finland aimed at constructing up to four advanced polar icebreakers. The deal, valued at $6.1 billion, is intended to increase the U.S. icebreaking fleet as Russia and China continue to expand their activities in the Arctic region.

The agreement strengthens the existing trilateral Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE) Pact involving Finland, the United States, and Canada. This partnership is designed to accelerate icebreaker development by sharing expertise and resources among the three countries to enhance America’s Arctic security. Senator Sullivan has played a key role in advocating for improvements in U.S. polar security capabilities. As chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee responsible for oversight of the Coast Guard, he was involved in securing nearly $25 billion for Coast Guard investments through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This legislation included $300 million allocated for shoreside infrastructure to homeport the USCGC Storis icebreaker in Juneau, Alaska.

“If any state in the country knows one of our national security challenges, it's this and it's us: We have an icebreaker gap,” said Sen. Sullivan in a video statement. “Right now, we have two icebreakers—one is broken—and the Russians have 54, many of which are nuclear-powered, and weaponized. But here's the really good news: We are closing the icebreaker gap in a whole bunch of ways. Just in August, we were in Juneau to commission the Coast Guard icebreaker Storis. It was a great ceremony. I'd been working on that for ten years. The budget reconciliation bill has $300 million in shoreside infrastructure just for Juneau to homeport that icebreaker. Then, that bill also has the biggest build-up in the Coast Guard's history for icebreakers, cutters, helicopters. I chair the Senate Commerce subcommittee in charge of the Coast Guard. We're going to have at least 16 new icebreakers because of that bill—three are what they call ‘medium’ security icebreakers. Guess where I'm going to work my tail off to get them homeported? In our great state!

“Finally, yesterday, President Trump and the president of Finland announced more progress on this ICE Pact. $6.1 billion and having the Finns help us build and purchase icebreakers for us, hopefully for Alaska. I've talked to the President. I've talked to the president of Finland about this. President Trump's been on this icebreaker gap way since his first term. This is real progress. The one state that's going to benefit better than anyone is us.”