The U.S. Coast Guard is expanding its fleet of icebreakers and could be homeporting one of the vessels in Alaska.
Icebreakers are built with thicker hulls and used to navigate the world’s icy, northernmost waters.
On a call with reporters Wednesday, Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican, said the National Defense Authorization Act for the upcoming fiscal year appropriates $150 million towards buying and converting an existing icebreaker. The vessel most likely would be homeported in Juneau, according to Sullivan. “It should be a series of ports in our state that can homeport an icebreaker, but right now I think this is huge news for our state,” said Sullivan.
Sullivan said adding an icebreaker to Alaska’s existing Coast Guard fleet would bring 190 service members and hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure spending to the state. Russia currently has the world’s largest icebreaker fleet, which includes dozens more vessels than the U.S. Sullivan said adding to the fleet in Alaska is a top priority.
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