From SixtyDegreesNorth

SixtyDegreesNorth reviews the prospects for replacing the National Science Foundation’s leased Antarctic Research Ship, Nathaniel B. Palmer. Along the way, they suggest that the MPPS100 version of the Arctic Security Cutter appears to be a good candidate to fill this role.

USCGC Healy is already hosting scientific research in the Arctic, so such a role would not be unexpected.

The program name, “Arctic Security Cutter,” suggests these ships would not be used in Antarctica, but I doubt that will be the case.

The article also notes that while Healy is expected to receive a service life extension, it is only expected to add five years to the life of the ship. Having been commissioned in 2000, I presume that means she is expected to be decommissioned in 2035, so if the Coast Guard plans to retain an icebreaker configured for scientific research, it will likely have to  use one of the fourteen currently planned (three Polar Security Cutters, five Davie/Helsinki MPPS 100, and six Bollinger/RMC Multi-Purpose Icebreakers).

The report does seem to indicate that Davie and Helsinki have been awarded contracts for five ships, but while that is anticipated, I don’t think it has happened yet. It may have been pending acquisition of the shipyard in Texas where Davie is expected to build these ships. That deal only closed January 9, 2026.

Davie’s proposal for the USCG Arctic Security Cutter.

Canadian Coast Guard Multi-Purpose Icebreaker (MPI). Source: Seaspan
Note: The MPI image does not show the right propulsors; it will use Steerprop’s contra-rotating propulsors (CRP). Additionally according to Seaspan, the design could easily be upgraded to PC3. Confirmation from Seaspan and Aker Arctic.

Sixty Degrees North provides an excellent overview of what happened in the Great Lakes and St Lawrence Seaway including both the US and Canadian Coast Guards.

There is a particularly interesting paragraph,

“As I reported in the December U.S. Coast Guard Roundup, the U.S. Coast Guard is looking to expand its domestic (i.e. Great Lakes) icebreaking fleet by adding 18 new icebreaker— ten Homeland Security Cutter-Mediums (HSC-Ms) to replace the Bay-class, and seven Homeland Security Cutter-Light (HSC-Ls) to replace its aging 65-foot light icebreaking tugs (WYTLs) and 49-foot buoy utility stern loading boats (BUSLs). There is also a U.S. Coast Guard web page for a Homeland Security Cutter-Heavy (HSC-H), a vessel designed to augment the Great Lakes heavy icebreaker Mackinaw , although there is (as of today) no official Request for Information (RFI).”

The author also speculates,

Interestingly, the Canadian Coast Guard plans on replacing its older light icebreakers with the Multi-Purpose Icebreaker (previously called the Multi-Purpose Vessel). According to the Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy, the missions of the MPIs include:

• icebreaking in the Arctic in moderate ice conditions
• assisting with shipping and springtime flood control in the St. Lawrence waterway and Great Lakes regions
• conducting missions involving search and rescue, emergency response, and security and protection
• maintaining Canada’s marine navigation system, composed of approximately 17,000 aids to navigation

The U.S. Coast Guard is acquiring six Arctic Security Cutters that use the MPI design. It will be interesting to see if any of those vessels end up operating in the Great Lakes. (emphasis applied–Chuck)

These ships (pictured above) are larger and more powerful than USCGC Mackinaw, but are small enough to transit the St Lawrence lock system. Like many Canadian icebreakers, they also include a buoy tending capability.

Kongsberg proposal for Norway’s Standard class.

Norway has begun a program to replace “smaller patrol craft, minehunters, light corvettes, and other auxiliaries, spread out over twelve different classes” with two “Standard” classes for both their Navy and Coast Guard.  My guess is that five of the 18 “medium” size and five of the ten “offshore” vessels will go to the Norwegian Coast Guard which is a branch of the Norwegian Navy.

“The standardised vessels dedicated for Coastguard work will have certain modifications, but will also be capable of embarking the modular systems used by the Navy.”

We have two reports from Naval News, apparently news releases from two of the shipbuilders competing for the contract(s). The Ulstein report is much more detailed and is quoted above.

• Kongsberg Maritime Participates in Competition For New Standardised Vessels for Royal Norwegian Navy
• Ulstein unveils designs for new standardised vessels for Royal Norwegian Navy

Artist impressions of ULSTEIN’ standard-class designs proposal to the Royal Norwegian Navy. Ulstein image.

Artist impressions of ULSTEIN’ standard-class design proposal to the Royal Norwegian Navy. Ulstein image.

This project is interesting as a joint navy/coast guard project, as a modular systems project, and as a exploitation of what looks to be designs based on offshore industry support ships.

If you were reading this blog back in 2012, you might remember that a Ulstein design offered by Vigor was one of the contenders for the OPC contract.

Vigor’s Ulstein OPC proposal.

US Capital West Side, by Martin Falbisoner

Because the Coast Guard budget is part of the DHS budget, and a lot of people are not happy with what a DHS agency has been doing, there is a good possibility the Coast Guards will not have a budget beginning in February.

This is yet another reason I believe the Coast Guard should be an independent agency. There are already more than 40 independent agencies including the postal service, NASA, and the CIA.

Six of the Coast Guard’s eleven missions, including SAR are not even considered DHS missions.

The Coast Guard has not benefited from being a part of any Secretary level organization. Our budget request was never presented to the Congress without it being balanced first against other department priorities.

Every year it seems the Coast Guard budget has been increased by bipartisan support in Congress. We don’t need a Secretary of the Coast Guard. Coast Guard leaders can represent the Coast Guard without adding another level of bureaucracy.

Army National Guardsmen and Coast Guardsmen participate in a 2022 U.S. Cyber Command drill in Arkansas. With historic funding, the Coast Guard has an opportunity to bolster its cybersecurity mission. U.S. ARMY NATIONAL GUARD

The NORTHCOM on line magazine, “The Watch” reports,

“The United States Coast Guard has a rare opportunity to make wholesale upgrades to its cybersecurity defenses, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) proposed in an October 2025 opinion article for the nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C. Joel Coito, a CSIS defense fellow and U.S. Coast Guard commander, said the window of opportunity has been boosted by $25 billion in congressional funding, the result of rare political consensus among federal lawmakers on the importance of cybersecurity at the nation’s ports and maritime approaches. That consensus should be seized by policymakers to strengthen cyber defenses through bolstering the Coast Guard’s cybersecurity, Coito wrote.”

The post does not provide a link to the CSIS report it quotes but I believe this is it.

The U.S. Coast Guard and the Future of Maritime Cybersecurity

There is a lot of good information on the state of Coast Guard Cyber and the future path it might take including career opportunities.

“Regulatory, legislative, and policy developments have provided the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) with new cybersecurity tools and expanded authorities to secure the marine transportation system (MTS) from cyber threats. At the same time, budgetary headwinds that historically plagued the service have shifted. With nearly $25 billion of funding in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the USCG finds itself in the favorable—if unfamiliar—position of having resource winds at its back. The result? A chance for generational change in safeguarding the maritime cyber domain and bolstering the USCG cyber workforce. This commentary prescribes a path to capitalize on these legislative, policy, and funding wins: confirmation of key USCG senior leaders, enhanced cyber talent management, passage of pending USCG cyber legislation, broader interagency integration of USCG cyber capabilities, and rapid integration of private sector tools.”

USCGC Polar Star (WAGB 10) responds to a request for assistance from an Australian-owned cruise ship, Scenic Eclipse II, stuck in the Ross Sea amid Operation Deep Freeze 2026 on the cutter’s 50th birthday, Jan. 17, 2026. Operation Deep Freeze is one of the more challenging U.S. military peacetime missions due to the harsh environment in which it is conducted and this year also commemorates the Polar Star’s 50th year of service. (U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Christopher Bokum)

Seems likely this sort of thing will become more common.

Map of the Arctic region showing shipping routes Northeast Passage, Northern Sea Route, and Northwest Passage, and bathymetry, Arctic Council, by Susie Harder

CIMSEC has an interesting article that argues against much we have heard lately. It also may represent a view that may prevail in the next administration.

“Over the past five years, numerous articles have called for increased U.S. defense resources focused on the Arctic. This is a strategic mistake, a distraction.

“This article will outline the reasons proponents feel the high north has increased value, examine the actual strategic value of each, and show that none is sufficient to divert scarce resources from higher value theaters.”

Personally I disagree with this,

“…the United States should…also reduce its icebreaker contract to the maximum of six suggested by the Coast Guard. While the current two icebreakers may be insufficient, the proposed buy is much too large. It will take shipbuilding resources away from the Navy at a time when the fleet is understrength and has no path to sufficient numbers of ships.

In the first place the number the Coast Guard had been using was nine not six.

The additional ship building resources used to build the Arctic Security Cutters, other than perhaps the labor, might not exist if it were not for this program and these yards may develop into assets that will build ships for the Navy.

We may not need eleven Arctic Security Cutters, and it may not be the best use of the funds, but we can definitely use eleven. I cannot see more than that.

These are not as capable as the medium icebreakers originally planned. They do not have the horsepower, so we probably need more than the four or five previously planned.

They can do things we had not previously planned for the Arctic Security Cutters. They can break ice on the Great Lakes. They can keep ports in Alaska open.

While these ships may provide an excess of icebreaking capability, they can be used for other Coast Guard missions as well. Like the Canadian AOPS, they can be used as patrol cutters when not used as icebreakers. They are not ideal, but they are useable.

I see the possibility of future conflict over Antarctica. If that should happen, we may be very glad we have them.

A Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel monitors a China Coast Guard vessel off the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea in April 2024. KYODO/REUTERS

The Japan Coast Guard is responding to Chinese Coast Guard gray zone provocations in the contiguous zone around the Japan-controlled Senkaku Islands, leading to increased tensions and prompting the Japan Coast Guard to increase the armament on their cutters.

“Chinese government vessels’ approaches to the Senkakus have increased sharply since 2012 when Tokyo bought three of the islands from a private owner. The CCG initially deployed one vessel at a time but now routinely dispatches four at a time, the JCG reported. Since mid-2024, all four vessels have been equipped with deck-mounted autocannons such as 76 mm guns.”

But I wanted to highlight one particular paragraph.

“..the CCG has been rapidly increasing its fleet size and capabilities, including weapons. According to the JCG, the CCG operated 161 vessels with full-load displacement of 1,000 tons or more as of December 2024 compared with the JCG’s 78 vessels in that category.”

Now, how many do we have?

• 4 Icebreakers
• 16 WLB (ocean going buoy tenders
• 10 National Security Cutters
• 13 WMEC270
• 8 WMEC 210
• USCGC Alex Haley
• USCGC Eagle

53 ships (I think that is right) for a nation with the second largest EEZ on earth (France’s EEZ is slightly larger).

The US EEZ is about two and a half times the size of that of Japan and about five time the sized of China’s claimed EEZ more than half of which is disputed.

Costa Rican Coast Guard and U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alert (WMEC 630) crew members pose for a photo aboard the cutter in Golfito, Costa Rica, Jan. 2, 2026. Alert’s crew hosted the Costa Rican personnel for a tour of the cutter and embarked MH-65 Dolphin helicopter as well as discussions of ways to strengthen the presence of international counter-drug efforts in the region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Ensign Ethan Lasher)

Below is a news release. It is pretty routine but I wanted to point out a couple of things.

This more than 56 year old ship is still doing useful work.

The US Coast Guard has been helping the Costa Rican Coast Guard since the 1980s.