Business leaders eye effect of future icebreakers on Arctic

A large cash infusion to the U.S. Coast Guard’s budget and recent comments by President Donald Trump are stoking optimism that the country’s limited icebreaker fleet might soon greatly expand.

That’s according to shipbuilders, other businesspeople and some diplomats who spoke at the Arctic Encounter Symposium in Anchorage this week. Icebreakers are particularly important to Alaska, especially in the Bering Strait region where a narrow strip of water separates Alaska and Russia, a remote place where foreign vessels are often known to stray.

The United States has three polar-grade icebreakers capable of navigating the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean, a waterbody that is rapidly warming due to climate change and seeing  new shipping routes opening in the process. The U.S.’s modest fleet compares to Russia’s hefty arsenal of some 40 icebreakers, including the world’s only nuclear-powered ones.

As sea ice melts and vessel traffic increases in Alaska’s northern waters and elsewhere in the Arctic, fear of oil spills, vessel collisions and national security threats from foreign adversaries is on the rise. Against this backdrop, the U.S. and two allies, Canada and Finland, are trying to boost the production of icebreakers capable of navigating and protecting the Arctic. Their goal is to build between 70 and 90 icebreakers within the next decade, according to published reports.

The trilateral cooperation effort is spelled out in a guidance document called ICE Pact, which stands for Icebreaker Collaboration Effort. This memorandum of understanding was signed at a NATO summit in Washington last year.

During a Thursday panel discussion at the Arctic conference, Paul Barrett of the Canadian shipbuilding company Davie noted that the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” builds off of ICE Pact in that it contains some $8 billion for the Coast Guard to expand its icebreaker fleet.

Trump has said he wants the U.S. to build or acquire 40 new icebreakers to close the gap with Russia and to counter the growing influence of both Russia, and more recently China, in the Arctic.

Barrett said his company is committed to helping make that happen. He outlined a $1 billion investment Davie is making to start building icebreakers at shipyards in Galveston and Port Arthur, cities in Texas.

“This is about really equipping the U.S. shipbuilding sector for the decades ahead,” said Barrett, the company’s chief communications officer. “Our analysis is that we can help the Americans to build these ships that they need and we can create many thousands of jobs, good jobs, in America.”

The massive spending and tax bill that Trump signed on July 4 contains $4.3 billion for the Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutter program, to pay for three heavy icebreakers. There’s also $3.5 billion in the bill for three or more medium-grade icebreakers and about $800 million for light icebreakers.

The Coast Guard currently has two polar-grade icebreakers, and is getting a third, the Storis, which is scheduled to be commissioned in Juneau later this month. The Storis is the first polar icebreaker to be acquired by the Coast Guard in more than 25 years.

During a question-and-answer period at Thursday’s session, Dennis Young, who heads the Alaska Division of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, asked why shipyards in Texas were chosen — as opposed to Alaska — for icebreaker construction.

Building a generational workforce of shipbuilders in Seward, Ketchikan or another Alaska port town would be a “tremendous asset for our communities,” Young said.

William Henagan, U.S. strategy lead for Davie, said many factors played into the decision but an important one was that Texas has a much larger existing workforce of skilled shipbuilders.

“From my experience down in Galveston, they do a lot of fabrication work, so they’re already building steel for the existing contracts,” Henagan said.

That said, Davie is “open for business” in Alaska and elsewhere.

“Paul and I are up here looking for opportunities and ways to collaborate with Alaska shipyards,” he said.

Henagan noted that icebreakers are “50-year assets” that require a lot of ongoing maintenance. So even if the ships are built in Texas, there might be plenty of work for Alaska to capture once the icebreakers start operating in the Arctic.

There’s no doubt that Alaska and the U.S. need more icebreakers for security reasons, said former Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, a panelist. But he said the country needs to focus on the commercial aspects of the Arctic Ocean and step up its role in capturing rapidly emerging global commerce opportunities.

“Let’s move forward with the concept of a marine seaway in the Arctic and figure out what the U.S. role is in helping convene the players to make that happen,” said Treadwell, a businessperson and former chair of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. 

There’s talk that the U.S. secretary of transportation may visit Alaska this summer.

“Let’s all talk to him about it,” Treadwell said. “The fact is, we did this with Canada with the Saint Lawrence.”

He was referring to the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway System, built as a binational partnership between the U.S. and Canada. Administered by both countries, the seaway allows vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.

During Friday’s session on ICE Pact, Ambassador David Balton, who served as U.S. deputy assistant secretary for oceans and fisheries during the Biden administration, said while there’s clearly a need for more U.S. icebreakers, he’s skeptical about the effectiveness of the trilateral partnership.

“Relations between the United States and Canada at the moment are not great,” Balton said.

The 35% U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods that went into effect on Friday have a chilling effect and have disrupted one of the largest and most successful trading relationships in the world, he said.

And it’s not just tariffs that are straining bilateral relations.

“Let’s not forget that President Trump has spoken multiple times about how Canada should be part of the United States, and it hasn’t gone down very well with our Canadian friends,” Balton said.

Arctic shipping represents a “paltry fraction” of oceangoing global trade, he noted, and Balton said he’s doubtful that’s going to radically change anytime soon.

Even under the most aggressive climate change models, the Arctic Ocean remains ice-covered for most of the year.

There’s little existing land-based infrastructure to support large-scale Arctic shipping. Balton said it’s not clear to him that major shipping companies are going to retrofit their fleets to handle Arctic conditions for just a portion of the year, especially in a forbidding ocean that is poorly charted.

“There’s also unknown environmental consequences to large-scale Arctic shipping that we might want to stop and think about before embracing this brave new world that you’re imagining,” Balton said.