The U.S Coast Guard recommissioned the icebreaking offshore tug Aiviq as the USCGC Storis to support the USCGC Polar Star and USCGC Healy.

It is the first oceangoing icebreaker that the Coast Guard acquired in over 25 years.

Aiviq was constructed by Edison Chouest in 2012 as an icebreaking anchor-handler for Shell’s offshore drilling program.

The vessel lost its propulsion in the Gulf of Alaska in 2012, and after the program ended, it was idle for a long period.

The Coast Guard resisted the pressure to buy the ship from Edison Chouest, but after the ship had made many commercial voyages to Antarctica, and after the USCG’s own icebreaker construction program fell behind schedule, the service changed its mind.

The icebreaker was formally acquired on December 11, 2024, and will support the Coast Guard missions until the delayed delivery of the Polar Security Cutter, the USCG’s future heavy icebreaker.

Unlike other Coast Guard cutters, Storis is manned by a hybrid crew of civilian mariners and active-duty Coast Guard service members.

The arrangement helped the service get Aiviq into service immediately.

The commissioning of USCGC Storis strengthens the ability of the U.S Navy to control, secure and defend the U.S border around Alaska.

Until the work is done, Storis will be homeported in Seattle, where there is shipyard infrastructure and an industrial base to support marine operations.

Storis’s commissioning in Juneau comes fully a year ahead of the planned schedule for her conversion into a cutter.

Source: www.marineinsight.com