Coast Guard icebreaker Storis begins maiden voyage, scheduled to be commissioned in Juneau in August

The Storis icebreaker set out on its maiden journey for Juneau on Tuesday with plans to commission it there in August, but it won’t be homeporting in Juneau until the necessary shore infrastructure is in place, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Wednesday.

The 360-foot-long ship icebreaker — launched in 2012 as a private ship originally known as the Aiviq until the Coast Guard bought and renamed it late last year — is the first polar icebreaker acquired in more than 25 years, a Coast Guard press release states. Officials involved with the acquisition have estimated there will be nearly 200 crew members and about 400 of their family members stationed in Juneau when homeporting facilities are fully ready.

However, initially the Storis will have a reduced crew that won’t be in Juneau full-time, according to the release.

“Until the necessary shore infrastructure improvements are completed in Juneau, Storis will be temporarily berthed in Seattle, Washington, with the Service’s two other polar icebreakers,” the release states.

Keith M. Ropella has been named captain of the Storis. He currently is chief of cutter forces at the Coast Guard’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and previously commanded the Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star from July 2022 to July 2024. The release states the initial crew is a hybrid of military cuttermen and civilian mariners.

A Coast Guard spokesperson, in an email to the Empire on Jan. 6, stated a crew of 60 was expected to be assigned to the Storis for its summer of 2026 deployment.

“Once the CGC Storis has been retrofitted it will have a crew assigned, however it will be several years before families arrive in Juneau,” the email states. “In addition to making the Storis fit for military service, the Coast Guard will need to make shoreside infrastructure investments to accommodate the ship. The design work needed to determine the scale and scope of the project can take several years, and construction will take additional time.”

The press release notes “this is the second vessel in Coast Guard history to bear the name Storis. The original Storis, known as the ‘Galloping Ghost of the Alaskan Coast,’ had a storied history conducting 64 years of icebreaking operations in Alaska and the Arctic before being decommissioned in 2007.” That included being stationed in Juneau from 1948 to 1957.

The purchase of the Aiviq and conversion work by the Coast Guard is because of delays in building and launching new Polar Security Cutters that were originally announced in 2018, but the first of them is now unlikely to be ready until at least 2030. Coast Guard officials have stated the Storis will not have the capability of the new cutters, but can serve supplemental patrol duties.

The Coast Guard has stated it is seeking to build eight to nine Polar Security Cutters in an attempt to catch up with icebreaker fleets of other countries with Arctic territory, notably Russia. President Donald Trump, after beginning his second term in January, stated he wants to acquire at least 40 new icebreakers — which was “widely dismissed by industry experts as a gaffe,” according to Forbes. Skeptics also questioned how the U.S. could pay for such a fleet — along with the difficulty so far in building a single new icebreaker.

However, the press release issued Wednesday treats Trump’s 40-icebreaker fleet as a serious policy matter.

“In support of the President’s intent to acquire at least 40 new icebreakers, the Coast Guard is working to replace, modernize and grow its aging fleet of icebreakers, which currently includes 3 polar icebreakers, 21 domestic icebreakers and 16 ice-capable buoy tenders,” the release states. “As the United States’ third polar icebreaker, Storis will provide near-term operational presence and support national security as a bridging strategy until the full complement of PSCs is delivered.”

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.