The Coast Guard in the News
Building Up in the Arctic
The Coast Guard is investing heavily in the bases and ships it needs for a growing presence in the Arctic and the North Pacific. On September 11 it awarded Tutor Perini a $315 million contract for a new fuel pier at Base Kodiak, Alaska, with berths for two major cutters, to be completed in fall 2030. Days later it awarded The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company $173.7 million for the next phase of the modernization of Base Seattle, home port of the icebreakers Polar Star and Healy. That phase includes a new pier at Slip 36B, dredging, and two major-cutter berths able to host the service's future Polar Security Cutters, the first of which is now projected for delivery in March 2033.
The ships those piers will serve are already being built. The Coast Guard has contracts for 11 Arctic Security Cutters, a new class of icebreaker based on a Finnish design, with Bollinger Shipyards in Louisiana, Rauma Marine Constructions in Finland and Davie Defense. Steel was cut for the first one in April, and it is scheduled for delivery in 2028. The first two will be based at Kodiak and a third at Seward.
"Modernizing Base Seattle is critical to ensuring our Coast Guard has the infrastructure required to support the next generation of cutters and the missions they will perform in the Arctic and across the Pacific," said Vice Commandant Adm. Thomas G. Allan Jr.
Operation Pacific Viper
The Coast Guard's surge of cutters, aircraft and tactical teams against drug smuggling in the Eastern Pacific has now seized more than 260,000 pounds of cocaine. In six days in mid-September, the crew of the cutter Tampa seized more than 25,000 pounds in three interdictions off Central America and detained 13 suspected smugglers.
New Skipper at Air Station Port Angeles
On July 9, Cmdr. Beau C. Belanger relieved Cmdr. Kelly L. Higgins as commanding officer of Coast Guard Air Station Port Angeles, in a ceremony presided over by Capt. William L. Mees, chief of staff of the Coast Guard Northwest District. During Higgins's tenure the air station's crews conducted 225 search-and-rescue cases, saving or assisting 45 lives. She now serves as incident management chief at the Northwest District in Seattle. Belanger previously attended the U.S. Army War College and served as engineering officer at Air Station Borinquen, Puerto Rico.
Commissioned in 1935, Air Station Port Angeles is the Coast Guard's oldest continuously operating air station. Its MH-65 Dolphins are regular partners on cases in our waters, including the Parker Reef rescue this month and the Sucia Island floatplane rescue this summer.
Coast Guard at SeaFeast
The 10th annual Bellingham SeaFeast, the city's celebration of its working waterfront and fishing fleet, filled Zuanich Point Park on September 26 and 27. The active-duty Coast Guard was there with a booth, and the festival's schedule included Coast Guard rescue demonstrations.
Sources: gCaptain, September 15 and 23, 2026; Stars and Stripes, July 15, 2026; Department of Homeland Security, September 24, 2026; Peninsula Daily News, July 21, 2026; Bellingham SeaFeast.