By Suzanne Downing 
The US Coast Guard is moving ahead with a major infrastructure overhaul at its Seattle base while exploring the acquisition of a large section of waterfront from the Port of Seattle, an expansion aimed squarely at supporting the service’s rapidly growing Arctic mission.
Newly released planning documents show the Coast Guard has awarded a contract to modernize Pier 36 in preparation for the arrival of three new Polar Security Cutters, the heavy icebreakers that will replace the 47-year-old Polar Star and dramatically expand the nation’s polar capabilities. The upgrade includes dredging the basin at Pier 36 and building two strengthened berths capable of handling the deeper-draft cutters.
“Seattle is the designated homeport for the Coast Guard’s new Polar Security Cutters,” a spokesperson told KING 5. “Those cutters have a deeper draft than the Service’s legacy heavy icebreakers, so the dredging project deepens the basin and upgrades Piers 36 and 37 to deliver a homeport for those three new PSCs.”
Pier 36, located just south of downtown Seattle, has long anchored Coast Guard operations across the Pacific. But as Arctic traffic increases, sea routes become more accessible, and global competitors, especially Russia and China, xpand their own icebreaking fleets, the United States is accelerating efforts to reinforce its maritime posture.
The Seattle upgrades align with a broader push from the Pentagon to strengthen American presence in the Arctic. A senior defense official recently said shifting climate patterns, increased Russian military activity, and deteriorating US maritime infrastructure have prompted a renewed focus on how to maintain readiness and safeguard national interests in the region. Ensuring the Coast Guard has modern homeport facilities for its new heavy icebreakers is seen as a critical element of that strategy.
The service is also in early discussions to acquire additional shoreline from the Port of Seattle, a move that would allow expanded operations, new support facilities, and long-term growth. While those talks are ongoing, construction work at Pier 36 is already underway, laying the foundation for the nation’s first new heavy icebreaker in nearly half a century.
For the Coast Guard, the upgrades are part of a long-term effort to ensure the United States can operate, compete, and project sovereignty in one of the most strategically important regions on the planet.
A “polar” fleet based in Seattle. Does anyone find this a little odd?
Typical of Seattle. Anything to cut Alaska out of the game. Same as its always been
Repair and supply facilities are much better and cheaper in Seattle. Plus, remember that these ships also go to the Antarctic and therefore basing them in Alaska due to proximity makes less sense.
It is a feasibility inequality. On one side is a base with unbounded accommodations for maintenance and operations. The other side is proximity to the mission area of operations to reduce time and cost of travel to and from. The obvious compromise to achieve feasibility equality would be to base the vessels in Juneau. However, the feasibility analysis is often overturned by politics or deep-state interests.
Actually, the obvious compromise would be Kodiak.
These ships also serve Antarctica.
Seriously? Do you actually believe the US Coast Guard operates in the Antarctic? I am not saying it has not happened but it could only be a one-off. BTW – are you a Biden-Harris supporter?
I will correct myself: The Coast Guard annually sends an icebreaker to McMurdo Sound to open a ship canal. But one ship on one mission a year does not does not serve as a justification for locating multiple ships in temperate and oh-so-fashionable non-polar Seattle.
Thank you for researching the truth after you speak. Next time, try to do it beforehand. The icebreakers from Seattle have supported McMurdo for years.
The commenters advocating for a home port further north may forget that there are two poles that the Coast Guard ice breakers have missions at.
It would be interesting to comb through the dredgings. When I was assigned to the Cutter Mariposa at pier 36 items would sometimes go “missing.” Serving trays with burned on food that would be hard to clean, a coffee mug from the guy that made you angry…..
Seattle is only 2500+nautical miles from the Arctic circle. Juneau is halfway there. Maybe put all that money into building a new deep water port at Nome.
Without Alaska Seattle would be nothing.
The ice breakers go both north and south so there is some logic to Seattle as a port. Coast Guard cutters get their serious work done in shipyards so it is common for cutters, including ice breakers, to travel somewhere else for a yard period. Shipyard service in our home port was never an item I personally never experienced in my service.
Kodiak would be a more logical base for Arctic operations since it is much closer to the Arctic. Kodiak gets mixed reviews as a home port depending o n your view. Some service members can hardly wait to leave while others want to homestead there since they enjoy the outdoors available at Kodiak.
Alaskans need to get themselves fiscally in shape for the massive changes ahead of us being an Arctic state. Those changes are just around the corner
As the sea ice continues receding All eyes are looking north
That means being a government dependent people and being poorly developed and poorly managed government dependents who don’t know what they are doing in all Alaska industries isn’t going to help our state be a leader who is not pushed around by world leaders who are raised from infancy to lead and educated in the worlds finest K-12 schools or academies how to be a leader like their fathers and mothers before them.
Can anyone identify a clearer example of Alaska’s second-class (or maybe third-class) status among the states than building out a base for Arctic coastal operations in a non-Arctic state? Congratulations, Senator Sullivan, you have done a great service for a community that hates Alaska. This is like something out of Kafka.