U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy Departs Seattle for 2025 Arctic Deployment
The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy is again underway for its annual mission to the Arctic as one of only two large icebreakers currently operational for the United States. She departed her homeport of Seattle, Washington, on June 19 for what the USCG reports will be a “months-long” deployment.
The icebreaker, which was commissioned in 1999, provides the USCG’s primary presence each year in the Arctic. She completed her last deployment returning to Seattle on December 12, 2024, after a 73-day Arctic mission that included scientific research, search and rescue, and training exercises.
Her 2024 deployment, however, was interrupted by an electrical fire in the engine room, which forced her to return to Seattle for repairs at the beginning of August. The USCG said it was a precaution to ensure the vessel would be fully operational, and they rushed her back into the Arctic in October. Healy is the United States' only icebreaker designed and equipped with scientific instruments to support high-latitude Arctic research.
This year, the 420-foot icebreaker will support two high-latitude missions to study the formation and movement of sea ice and the pathways followed by Atlantic and Pacific waters in the Arctic, and ocean circulation patterns in the East Siberian and Laptev seas.
The first mission will be a collaboration with the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to deploy and service instruments for its Arctic Mobile Observing System (AMOS). The system advances autonomous, mobile observing methodologies to enable studies of sea ice dynamics and improve understanding of the circulation of water masses in the Arctic. AMOS focuses on developing technologies and approaches for creating a scalable observing system for sustained, persistent presence in the ice-covered Arctic.
The second mission will be in partnership with the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and will include recovering, servicing, and deploying long-term subsurface mooring arrays. They will also be conducting multidisciplinary surveys in support of the Nansen and Amundsen Basins Observational System (NABOS).
“We are eager to return to the Arctic,” said Healy’s Commanding Officer, Capt. Kristen Serumgard. “Healy is uniquely positioned to advance scientific understanding of the Arctic environment, directly supporting security and defense of the nation’s northernmost borders and maritime approaches.”
Serumgard assumed command of Healy earlier this month, having previously served as chief of operational forces at the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area Command.
The USCG has been working to keep the aging vessel operational while it awaits a new generation of polar security cutters, which are badly delayed and behind schedule. The USCG acquired a commercial icebreaker as an interim measure while Donald Trump has committed to expanding the icebreaker fleet.