The US intends to build up an icebreaker fleet larger than Russia’s, as the current gap in Moscow’s favor is “ridiculous,” President Donald Trump has said.
Speaking to US Coast Guard graduates in New London, Connecticut, on Wednesday, Trump highlighted an agreement signed with Finland earlier this year to build 11 icebreakers.
“We’re going to learn the craft and we’re going to have so many icebreakers,” Trump said. “You know, Russia has 48 and we have one very old one, that’s ridiculous.”
He claimed the US would eventually operate 55 such ships, overtaking Russia and strengthening the American presence in the Arctic.
The agreement with Finland was finalized in February. Seven of the ordered vessels are expected to be constructed at US shipyards. The deal falls under the trilateral ICE Pact, which also includes Canada and was launched by then-President Joe Biden in July 2024.
Russia currently operates the world’s most powerful icebreaker fleet, which supports navigation along its northern coastline. It includes more than 40 vessels, among them eight nuclear-powered icebreakers.
The Yakutia, a 160-meter Arktika-class vessel able to break through ice up to three meters thick, was the latest ship to enter service with Rosatomflot, Russia’s state-owned maritime nuclear operator. Three more icebreakers of the same class are being built and are expected to replace older vessels, including the Taymyr and Vaygach, shallow-draft ships constructed for the Soviet Union by Finland.
Russia also operates the Viktor Chernomyrdin, the world’s most powerful diesel-electric icebreaker, with 25 megawatts of propulsion. The US Coast Guard’s gas-turbine Polar Star, currently America’s only operational heavy icebreaker, is admittedly more powerful at 44.7 megawatts. It is also far older, having entered service in the 1970s.
Moscow considers its icebreaker fleet a strategic asset, both for sustaining its Arctic presence and for keeping the Northern Sea Route open for as much of the year as possible. The route offers a shorter shipping link between Asia and Europe than the traditional passage through the Suez Canal. The US-Israeli war with Iran, which disrupted supplies of key goods from the Persian Gulf and raised safety concerns over Red Sea traffic, has renewed interest in the Russian alternative.
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