The One Big Beautiful Bill's effects are still being felt around the country, including in our gateway to the Arctic: Alaska. On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the United States Coast Guard, announced that two new Coast Guard arctic security cutters - icebreakers - will be home-ported in Alaska starting in 2028.
The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) announced two Arctic Security Cutters will be homeported in Alaska by the end of 2028 and will serve to strengthen American maritime power in the Arctic region.
The USCG, which operates under the Department of Homeland Security, could potentially award up to 11 Arctic Security Cutter contracts in 2026 using roughly $3.5 billion in funding provided by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
"Homeporting these two Arctic Security Cutters in Alaska is a decisive step forward in securing America’s Arctic frontier," Secretary Markwayne Mullin told Fox News Digital in a statement.
The United States has, at present, three icebreakers, one heavy and two medium. Russia, in contrast, has eight nuclear icebreakers and 34 conventional ones. Plans for at least 10 more are in the works. Russia is also the only nation to have nuclear-powered icebreakers.
Canada at present has 18 icebreakers, a mix of heavy and medium. Now, bear in mind that Canada has more Arctic Ocean coastline than the United States, and Russia has almost half of the entire Arctic Ocean shore.
These ships, as the resource-rich Arctic continues to develop, will only become more and more important, and the United States is behind the curve.
Arctic Security Cutters create opportunities for operations in frozen regions where ship transport is normally challenging or impossible to navigate. The vessel is structured with a rounded and sloped bow, allowing the ship to ride up on top of the surface of the ice and smash through using the weight of the ship.
Where most ships would get stuck, icebreakers use reinforced hulls, high-powered engines and special propellers to plow through dense ice fields, creating a passageway after the ice separates.
In the increasing race for Arctic resources, Alaska is only going to be more important in the near future. Not only is the Great Land America's treasure chest, but it's also our key access to the Arctic, and allows us to hold control of the North Pacific. Between Alaska and Hawaii, the United States has operational control of most of the world's largest ocean, but it's the Arctic that's growing now.
Read More: Arctic Wins: OBBB Gives America Big, Beautiful Icebreakers
Coast Guard Commissions Two New Vessels Key to Arctic Security
We don't just have Russia to contend with in the Arctic, either. China's navy has been stepping up operations in the Arctic approaches, sometimes working in conjunction with the Russians, and if that doesn't have some brows furrowed at the War Department, it should. And our current period of slight warming in the Arctic will not only open up new resource sites, but also new shipping lanes.
These two new Coast Guard icebreakers are a vital step in American defense of our part of the Arctic. But we're still way behind the curve, and the clock's a-tickin'.
Editor's Note: Thanks to President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America's military.
Help us report on Trump and Hegesth's successes as they make our military great again. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member