Tag Archives: Aiviq

Alaska USCG Ops Get Some Muscle

Posted on by Leave a comment

The Coast Guard, with 2,500 members assigned to USCG Arctic (formerly the 17th Coast Guard District), has been busy bird-dogging Chinese government research vessels in the region.

We’ve already talked about the China-flagged research ship Xue Long 2 (Snow Dragon 2), which, at 14,300 tons, is China’s first domestically built polar research vessel, poking around the Extended Continental Shelf a couple of weeks ago.

Now, four other Chinese red hulls are poking around as well.

The five Chinese Research Vessels are: Xue Long 2, China-flagged; Shen Hai Yi Hao, China-flagged; Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di, Liberia-flagged; Ji Di, China-flagged; and Tan Suo San Hao, China-flagged.

The Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di, a Liberian-flagged research vessel, owned and operated by the Chinese University Sun Yat-Sen, as detected by a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft from Air Station Kodiak. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo) 250805-G-G0200-1001

A C-130J Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak responds to a Chinese research vessel operating in the U.S. Arctic as part of Operation Frontier Sentinel Aug. 13, 2025.

A C-130J Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak responds to a Chinese research vessel operating in the U.S. Arctic as part of Operation Frontier Sentinel Aug. 13, 2025.

A C-130J Hercules airplane crew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak responds to a Chinese research vessel operating in the U.S. Arctic as part of Operation Frontier Sentinel Aug. 13, 2025.

From USCG PAO Juneau: 

The U.S. Coast Guard detected and responded to two Chinese research vessels operating in the U.S. Arctic and is currently monitoring a total of five similar vessels in or near the U.S Arctic.

On August 5, a C-130J Hercules fixed-wing aircraft from Air Station Kodiak responded to the Chinese research vessels Ji Di and the Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di.  Both vessels were transiting northeast in the Bering Sea.

On August 6, the crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Waesche (WMSL 751) again responded to the Zhong Shan Da Xue Ji Di as it was transiting north in the Chukchi Sea above the Arctic Circle, after passing through the Bering Strait.

The C-130 and USCGC Waesche were patrolling under Operation Frontier Sentinel, an operation that responds to adversaries operating in and around Alaskan and U.S. Arctic waters. The U.S. Coast Guard’s responses are intended to counter malign activities, defend sovereign interests, and promote maritime conduct consistent with international law and norms.

The presence of these vessels is consistent with a three-year trend of increased activity from Chinese research vessels operating in the U.S. Arctic. Last year, three Chinese research vessels conducted research operations north of the Bering Strait.

Storis commissioned in Juneau

The new (to the service) “icebreaker” USCGC Storis (WAGB-21) was commissioned in Juneau on Sunday.

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis (WAGB 21) remains moored during the Storis commissioning ceremony at Juneau, Alaska, August 10, 2025. Storis is the first polar icebreaker acquired in more than 25 years by the Coast Guard, with its mission to assure access to the polar regions and protect U.S. sovereignty. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Carmen Caver)

Taking the name of the legendary 2,000-ton/230-foot WWII-era icebreaker USCGC Storis (WAGL/WAG/WAGB/WMEC-38), which had a 64-year career, much of it in Alaska waters, the new 12,800-ton 360-foot cutter is much different but at the same time, more capable in many ways.

Sadly, although she was commissioned in Alaska and is to be stationed there, Storis will be shifting back to Seattle, where she is chilling with the USCG’s other icebreakers until a berth can be finished for her in 2026-27.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard’s $4.3 billion Polar Security Cutter (PSC) heavy polar icebreaker program has had all three of its vessels fully funded— although it will probably be half a decade before the class leader is delivered and commissioned.

Going past that class, three to five new medium polar icebreakers called Arctic Security Cutters (ASCs) are on the drawing board, giving the service eight modern icebreakers to replace its current three (the 50-year-old heavy USCGC Polar Star, the 26-year-old medium breaker USCGC Healy, and the ersatz Storis).

$3.5 billion for the first three Arctic Security Cutters has been fully funded under H.R. 1.

The Coast Guard’s future Arctic Security Cutter (ASC), as many as five of which may be built “someday”

New Sentinel clocks in

The fifth of six planned new 154-foot Sentinel (Webber) class Fast Response Cutters is slated to be commissioned at Kodiak’s fuel pier on Monday after self-deploying over 7,000nm from her builder in Louisiana.

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Earl Cunningham (WPC 1159) arrives at their homeport in Kodiak, Alaska, May 31, 2025. This was the first time the cutter had arrived at its homeport following its construction in Lockport, Louisiana. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Shannon Kearney)

Cunningham will be homeported in Kodiak with USCGC John Witherspoon (WPC 1158), which arrived in January. Meanwhile, they have a trio of Ketchikan-based sisters: USCGC John McCormick (WPC-1121)— the first Sentinel-class stationed in Alaska in 2017– USCGC Anthony Petit, and USCGC Bailey Barco. They all replaced smaller, cramped 110-foot Island-class cutters, which dated back to the Reagan Administration.  

The Coast Guard commissioned its newest cutter, Coast Guard Cutter Earl Cunningham (WPC 1159), for official entry into its service fleet during a ceremony held in Kodiak, Alaska, Aug. 11, 2025. The ceremony was presided over by Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard, and members of the Cunningham family were also in attendance, including the cutter’s sponsor, Penney Helmer, who is also the granddaughter of Earl Cunningham. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by PA3 Carmen Caver)

Armament includes a Mk 38 Mod 2 25mm gun forward and four flex mounts for M2 .50 caliber BMGs (or anything else that can be put on those pintles) along with assorted small arms. These vessels have been operating small UAVs as of late.

The sixth FRC headed to Alaska, the future USCGC Frederick Mann (WPC 1160), was delivered by Bollinger last month and should arrive in Alaskan waters in the coming weeks.
With 67 FRCs contracted by the USCG, and six now serving in the Persian Gulf, the service is negotiating with Bollinger for another 10-to-12 of these hardy vessels.

Welcome the first new (to the USCG) icebreaker in 25 years…

Posted on by 2 comments

For better or worse, the third-hand 360-foot oilfield support vessel M/V Aiviq, acquired in December 2024 from an Edison Chouest Offshore subsidiary, was renamed the future USCGC Storis (WAGB 21) and has spent the past six months in a series of shipyard availabilities along the Gulf Coast.

This week, “following modifications to enhance communications and self-defense capabilities,” the country’s newest “polar icebreaker” departed Bollinger’s yard in Escatawpa (formerly VT Halter) on its “maiden voyage to safeguard U.S. sovereign interests in the Arctic and conduct Coast Guard missions.”

Photos courtesy of Edison Chouest Offshore.

While scheduled to be commissioned in Juneau this August, where she will eventually be based once the service has built the necessary infrastructure for her, in the meantime, Storis will be homeported in Seattle with the agency’s other icebreakers. The cutter’s new skipper is the former captain of the USCGC Polar Star (WAGB 10), so at least he is used to working with a mixed bill of goods.

To be clear, Storis will be used as a bridging strategy to “expand U.S. operational presence in the Arctic and support Coast Guard missions.”

At the same time, the service awaits the delivery of the delayed, and much more capable (potentially to include anti-ship missiles) 460-foot, 19,000-ton (launch weight) icebreaking multi-mission Polar Security Cutter class.

Unless they get DOGE’d.

 

Storis to Return, Zumwalt Floats, Arkansas Launches

Posted on by One comment

U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Storis during the run for a short-cut Northwest Passage prepares to send helicopters aloft on ice reconnaissance before proceeding eastward through Amundsen Gulf to Dolphin and Union Straits, Canadian Northwest Territory (July 23, 1957). 26-G-5782

The name USCGC Storis is one of the most hallowed to the Coast Guard.

Commissioned in 1942, the heavily-armed 230-foot icebreaker earned her chops in the “Weather War” against the Germans in Greenland, later became the first U.S. vessel to circumnavigate the North American continent after she cleared the Northwest Passage, and stood watch over Alaska– supporting the DEW Line and rebuffing Soviet interlopers during the Cold War. Once it thawed, she became the first foreign warship to visit the Russian Pacific Fleet bastion of Petropavlovsk since 1854.

Only narrowly escaping preservation as a museum ship following her decommissioning in 2007, the service has apparently bestowed the name on a much less noble successor.

Rather than holding out to name one of the big new Polar Security Cutters currently under construction, the USCG is apparently renaming the third-hand 360-foot oilfield support vessel Aiviq as USCGC Storis (WAGB-21), as detailed by images coming from Tampa Ship LLC in Florida, where she is undergoing a rushed conversion before entering federal service sometime in 2026.

Icebreaker Aiviq is now in USCG Icebreaker Red and carries the name Storis on its transom. (Source: GCaptain)

Icebreaker Aiviq is now in USCG Icebreaker Red and carries the name Storis on its transom. (Source: GCaptain)

The Coast Guard intends to permanently homeport the vessel in Juneau, Alaska, a departure from its longstanding tradition of basing icebreakers in Seattle.

China trembles. 

Meanwhile, in DDG-1000 news…

Some 16 months after arriving in Pascagoula, and with her original twin 155mm Advanced Gun Systems replaced with 12 new Conventional Prompt Strike missile tubes, USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) undocked on 6 December and returned to the water of the Pascagoula River.

Zumwalt undocking, 6 December 2024, Pascagoula, HII photo

Zumwalt undocking, 6 December 2024, Pascagoula, HII photo

She will now undergo testing in the Gulf of Mexico before returning to the fleet and the (hopeful) IOC of her new hypersonic boost-glide weapon system.

Keep in mind that Zumwalt was laid down in 2011 and commissioned eight years ago, so it will be nice to finally see her with a set of teeth…eventually.

A deeper dive by Alex Hollings. 

Welcome Back, Razorback!

The 27th Virginia-class submarine, the future USS Arkansas (SSN 800), was christened Saturday at Newport News.

USS Arkansas was christened on the 83rd anniversary of Pearl Harbor. HII photo

It is a great name and it’s nice to see it on the NVR again, after a 26-year absence.

When commissioned, likely in 2026, the advanced Block IV boat will be the fifth warship to carry the name of The Natural State including the mighty Wyoming-class battleship (BB-33) and a Virginia-class nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser (CGN-41).

Of note, BB-33 was at anchor in Casco Bay on the sleepy Sunday morning of 7 December 1941, part of the Atlantic Neutrality Patrol, a task that spared her a spot on Battleship Row in Pearl that day.

She would be in the gunline off Normandy.

Opening the Attack Painting, Watercolor on Paper; by Dwight C. Shepler; 1944 D-Day. Arkansas is in the foreground, and French cruisers George Leygues and Montcalm are in the background. NHHC 88-199-ew

Once her work was done in Europe, she of course returned to the Pacific to support the landings at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

American USCG Wolves?

Posted on by One comment

The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black (DDG 119) sails alongside the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCGC Northland (WMEC 904) and the Royal Canadian Navy offshore patrol vessels HMCS Margaret Brooke (AOPV 431) and HMCS Harry DeWolf (AOPV 430) while conducting a photo exercise during Operation NANOOK (OP NANOOK) in the Atlantic Ocean, Aug. 18, 2024. OP NANOOK is the Canadian Armed Forces’ annual series of Arctic exercises designed to enhance defense capabilities, ensure the security of northern regions, and improve interoperability with allied forces. Delbert D. Black participated in the operation alongside the U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian and Danish allies to bolster Arctic readiness and fulfill each nation’s defense commitments. (U.S. Navy photo 240818-N-MA550-1086 by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Rylin Paul)

The U.S. Coast Guard Arctic Strategy has been in a holding pattern for the past decade.

In that time, no (as in zero) new ice-capable ships have been added to the fleet or even progressed so far as to be christened. This while the country’s only medium polar icebreaker has suffered a fire that forced her to abort her latest NSF mission and the country’s only heavy polar icebreaker going through never-ending cycles of rebuilding the 50-year-old ship for 240 days a year to be able to accomplish the annual Deep Freeze resupply mission to Antarctica.

While the agency is spending $125 million on the troubled but supposedly “off the shelf” ice-capable oil field supply boat Aiviq and plans to base it in Alaska, the “The Service anticipates the vessel will reach initial operational capability in two years.”

Likewise, the multi-billion dollar effort to build the planned class of Polar Security Cutters seems to be almost for naught, with GAO griping that the design hasn’t even been finished yet despite the contract being awarded in 2019. While three of these big (22,000-ton) WMSPs are authorized, the first one will not hit its Seattle homeport until at least 2028– and don’t hold your breath on that.

Meanwhile, the only blue water cutter based in Alaska, the nearly 60-year-old USCGC Alex Haley (WMEC 39)— which often bumps into Russian naval assets in the Bearing Sea-– isn’t getting any younger. She needs a rapid replacement. 

The solution? Pump to brakes on the PSC to make sure we get it right and order a few Harry DeWolf-class offshore patrol vessels from Canada to help walk the beat.

HMCS Harry DeWolf

The Canadians have four of these 6,600-ton/340-foot vessels in service and two under construction with two more on order for the RCN and two unarmed near-sister Arctic and offshore patrol ships (AOPS) for the Canadian Coast Guard which are currently under construction. The eighth and final ship will be delivered in 2028. The cost is about $700 million U.S. per hull. 

The Wolfs are ugly, but have a good bit of capability, being capable of operating year-round in Polar Class 4-5 ice (up to 3.9 feet of first-year ice), while embarking a big helicopter (the 30,000-pound Sikorsky CH-148 Cyclone, which goes four tons heavier than the HH/SH/MH-60) and UAVs along with two large 28-foot cutters and a 40-foot landing craft.

Slow (17 knots) they have long legs (6,800nm unrefueled), able to cover the entire 1,900-mile span of the Northwest Passage, or the shorter Seattle-to-Kodiak or Boston-to-Thule runs with ease. The complement is 65, with spare berthing for embarked heli/drone dets and scientific nerds.

Armed for a constabulary “presence” and sovereignty mission they carry an enclosed Mk 38 Mod 3A 25 mm cannon and provision for a few .50 caliber mounts. In USCG service, this could be repeated and the Mk 38 updated to a 30mm gun– which is already planned for the Polar Security Cutter. I say add some Naval Strike Missiles for some serious teeth.

Produced by Irving Shipbuilding in Halifax, Nova Scotia, they are a tweak of the Norwegian Coast Guard NoCGV’s Svalbard (W303), a 6,400-ton/340-foot icebreaker and offshore patrol vessel that entered service in 2001.

Ordering while the line is hot speeds up delivery and reaps the benefit of the RCN being the beta tester on the first flight ships, allowing improvements and lessons learned to be folded into the new USCG hulls. Crews could be spun up quickly by deploying chiefs and junior officers on RCN vessels. 

Further, the Trudeau government would likely be open to selling 2-3 of the ships already under construction to the U.S. to speed up the acquisition process then “forgetting” to replace them for RCN, and CCG. If nothing else, they could be launched at Irving and finished in American yards (or at the USCG Yard) with Irving’s assistance to soothe the “not made here/American jobs” noise in Congress. 

Trudeau probably would have canceled them anyway.

Never fear, the politicians are here, and have a cup of iced pork

Posted on by 2 comments

Imagine her with a red hull and white stripe...Aiviq, 360′8″ Ice Class Anchor Handler. Photo by ECO

Imagine her with a red hull and white stripe…Aiviq, 360′8″ Ice Class Anchor Handler. Photo by ECO

Let’s face it: the U.S. Coast Guard has an icebreaker crisis that has been brewing since the 1970s. From WWII through the Ford Administration, the U.S. had the largest military ice-breaking fleet in the world. Then came the inevitable retirement of a host of 8 aging breakers, built for the Navy and armed like destroyers, which were to be replaced by four new 399-foot Polar-class ships.

Well, those four became only two as a result of 1970s budget crisis and they linger on as broken down occasionally functional vessels. Icebreakers take a beating.

Instead of building new heavy icebreakers to military spec, one Congressman wants the Coasties to buy the 12,000-ton Aiviq, an American ice-hardened anchor handling tug supply vessel owned by Edison Chouest Offshore.

Completed in 2012, the commercial vessel is pretty sweet, but in the end had trouble in Alaska trying to do its thing to the point that the cutter USCGC Alex Haley, a medium icebreaker, had to step in as a safety net.

Now, with Shell’s decision to halt Arctic oil exploration, the owners want to sell the gently used $200 million vessel to Uncle Sam for $150 million and a Republican (who has gotten some pretty big contributions from those involved with the ship) is all about it for the Coast Guard– even though the ship isn’t really an icebreaker, isn’t built to military specs, and failed in its only deployment.

“It’s my belief that the Coast Guard would benefit greatly from the initiative taken by Congress to provide funding—without drawing from existing Coast Guard priorities—to minimize the vessel gap, by leasing a medium icebreaker,” said Rep. Duncan Hunter, pimping the Aiviq.

Coast Guard Adm. Charles Michel isn’t impressed and said of the vessel, “This is not a pick-up game for the Coast Guard. We have very specific requirements for our vessels, including international law requirements for assertion of things like navigation rights. … This vessel does not just break ice …”

However, money talks, so there’s that.

Meanwhile, the Duffel Blog nails it: