U.S. shipbuilder Davie Defense Inc. announced on Wednesday that it has finalized its contract with the U.S. Coast Guard to build and deliver five Arctic Security Cutters.
The contract, first announced mid-February, will bring the total amount of cutters being manufactured to 11 to meet President Donald Trump’s executive orders to expand the icebreaker fleet, Military Times previously reported.
Davie Defense, the U.S. arm of the UK-owned maritime group Inocea is set to construct three of the ships at the company’s Gulf Copper facilities in Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas. The other two will be built at the company’s affiliate shipyard in Helsinki, Finland.
During an April 28 House subcommittee hearing on the Coast Guard’s fiscal 2027 budget, Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., questioned the use of Finland’s shipyard in building the latest cutters and whether it was a contradiction to the April 2025 Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security (SHIPS) for America Act aimed at revitalizing U.S. maritime industry.
Adm. Kevin E. Lunday, commandant of the Coast Guard, responded that the contract was well within the signed 2024 ICE Pact — a trilateral agreement between the United States, Canada and Finland to combine collective knowledge, resources and expertise to produce Arctic and polar icebreakers, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“We needed to begin by leveraging the overseas capability and proven shipbuilding in Finland so we could onshore more work back into the U.S. and rebuild our defense industrial base, and that’s exactly what we’re doing, sir,” Lunday noted.
The first cutter is set to be delivered to the Guard in 2028, with the contract running through February 2035.
“Finalizing this contract represents decisive action to guarantee American security in the Arctic,” Lunday said in a statement. “The Arctic Security Cutters will deliver the essential capability to uphold U.S. sovereignty against adversaries’ aggressive economic and military actions in the Arctic. These cutters will ensure the Coast Guard’s ability to control, secure, and defend our northern border and maritime approaches.”
The announcement comes as the service eyes far-flung frozen Arctic and Antarctic missions as result of the region’s increasing geopolitical importance.
The Coast Guard is currently operating with a lone heavy polar icebreaker, the USCGC Polar Star, and two medium polar icebreakers, the USCGC Healy and the USCGC Storis — which just returned to homeport on Monday after a 36-day deployment to the Arctic. The Storis is the first icebreaker to join the fleet in more than two decades.
According to DHS, the Coast Guard is utilizing the $25 billion provided by the fiscal 2025 budget reconciliation and has already ordered over $13 billion in new fleet assets and capabilities.
With increasing Russian and Chinese naval incursions, DHS is ramping up is facilities and its fleet to facilitate a greater maritime presence in the North. The agency announced last May that it had approved the construction of the service’s first polar security cutter in nearly 50 years, as well as invested $323 million in renovations for its Seattle-based icebreaker facilities and upgrades to shore facilities at Juneau, Alaska.
The five cutters to be delivered by Davie Defense will represent a new class of Arctic icebreakers “designed to conduct U.S. Coast Guard missions in the world’s most challenging maritime environments,” according to the release. “The ASC program will provide the Coast Guard with a modern icebreaking fleet to assure national security, maritime safety and Arctic access.”
Claire Barrett is an editor and military history correspondent for Military Times. She is also a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill and Michigan football.