The U.S. Coast Guard will purchase a commercial icebreaker and station it in Alaska’s capital. confirmed Wednesday.

The confirmation, which had been expected following a preliminary announcement earlier this year, came days after 27-year-old icebreaker Healy suffered an electrical fire This forced the company to cancel its summer mission in the Arctic Ocean.

The Coast Guard has only two active icebreakers, and the other ship – the Polar Star – is deployed in Antarctica, where it maintains the sea lanes that supply American research stations in Antarctica.

The U.S. Navy does not operate icebreakers, and Alaska’s congressional delegation has long called for the Coast Guard to be given sufficient funding to build new icebreakers.

A study from 2023 concluded that the Coast Guard will need eight or nine polar icebreakers in the near future, but only three new vessels have been ordered and the first of these is not expected to enter service until 2029.

As a stopgap measure, Alaska’s congressional delegation added $125 million to the Coast Guard’s funding bill last year, allowing the agency to purchase an icebreaker.

Only one ship meets Coast Guard standards – the Aiviq, which was originally built to support oil production in the Arctic Ocean.

Built in 2012, the Aiviq has had a mixed career: it was one of two ships towing the Shell oil rig Kulluk when the drilling rig broke loose and ran aground in Kodiak.

The Aiviq is currently owned by Offshore Service Vessels LLC and the Coast Guard issued a notice on March 1 stating its intent to purchase the Aiviq.

The Coast Guard has already acquired additional waterfront property in Juneau in anticipation of the Aiviq, but the agency only confirmed its plans this week.

Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Linda Fagan made the announcement during a trip to Alaska with Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski.

“The United States is an Arctic nation and the Coast Guard is critical to maintaining a presence in our territorial waters and the polar regions,” said Adm. Kevin Lunday, deputy commandant of the Coast Guard, in a prepared statement. “As we continue to build the Polar Security Cutters, the acquisition of a commercial-grade polar icebreaker will allow the Coast Guard to increase our national presence in the Arctic, and home-basing this cutter in Alaska demonstrates the Coast Guard’s unwavering commitment to the region.”

The timetable for bringing the icebreaker to Juneau is not yet clear. Fagan said Friday during a visit to Anchorage with Sullivan that the federal government must first negotiate the purchase of the vessel.

“I feel like it’s urgent,” Fagan said. “We need to buy it. We need to paint it red, put a Coast Guard stripe on it and hire a Coast Guard crew.”

Fagan said the Coast Guard needs to prepare facilities for the icebreaker in Juneau. And she noted that quarters for the crew need to be provided. She said it’s possible the ship will spend some time in Juneau while facilities and quarters are completed before it is permanently based there.

Sullivan and Murkowski both praised the Coast Guard’s actions.

“We’ve been working on this for decades,” Sullivan said. “The Arctic space for America needs an icebreaker, and we’re going to get one.”

In a joint statement with Sullivan, Murkowski said, “I repeat often: We are an Arctic nation because of Alaska, and we need the resources and personnel to fully and competently carry out our mission in the Arctic.”

Editor-in-chief Andrew Kitchenman contributed to this article.