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# Storis’s first Arctic patrol put a commercial ship and a mixed crew to work
- URL: https://pvweekly.com/storis-first-arctic-patrol/
- Published: 2026-10-27T19:29:58.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-27T19:29:58.000Z
- Description: 2025 archive · The Coast Guard’s third polar icebreaker completed its inaugural deployment in October 2025 while crews were still learning the converted vessel.
- Author: PV Weekly Editorial
- Tags: Technology & Defense, Archive 2025, #ledger-format, #archive-backfill-20261027

**2025 archive** · October 3, 2025Reporting prepared October 22, 2026\. This retrospective describes events and expectations from the period covered.[Browse the archive](https://pvweekly.com/archive/)

In September 2025, the Coast Guard’s newest polar icebreaker entered Arctic ice and relieved Healy on a mission monitoring Chinese-flagged research ships. Storis had become useful before its Coast Guard crew had finished learning how to run it without civilian help.

The cutter returned to Seattle on October 3 after its inaugural deployment, the service announced the following day. Its voyage showed what buying and adapting a commercial ship could provide quickly: another hull available for Arctic operations. It also exposed the less visible work required to turn an acquired vessel into a familiar, supportable Coast Guard asset.

Storis had been the commercial vessel Aiviq, purchased on December 20, 2024, from an Edison Chouest Offshore subsidiary. Communications and self-defense modifications preceded its 2025 departure. The Coast Guard described the acquisition as an interim source of polar capability while new Polar Security Cutters were being built; Storis was outside that program of record.

The deployment carried the ship from Mississippi through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific before it reached Alaska. In early September, according to the Coast Guard, Storis relieved Healy and monitored Jidi and Xue Long 2 as part of Operation Frontier Sentinel. That was a concrete expansion in the service’s ability to rotate ships through an Arctic mission.

Running the vessel required an unusual staffing arrangement. A December Coast Guard account described approximately 45 military personnel operating alongside 22 civilian mariners from Edison Chouest Offshore. The civilians knew the former commercial ship and taught Coast Guard personnel its equipment and operating practices.

Those practices could differ from the ones military crewmembers brought aboard. The service’s account described closely connected propulsion, electrical and control systems, including automation able to diagnose and correct some faults. Familiarity with another cutter was useful experience, but it did not substitute for understanding this ship’s machinery.

Its physical arrangement was different, too. The ship had been built for Arctic oil exploration and carried its flight deck forward rather than aft. Coast Guard personnel were learning a vessel designed around another operator’s work. That adaptation made the civilian mariners’ knowledge part of the near-term capability, alongside the hull and installed equipment.

The first patrol did not end that learning process. The October announcement outlined a six-week training period, including time underway, and commanding officer Capt. Corey Kerns said more training was needed before the Coast Guard crew could assume full responsibility. Operational employment and crew development had proceeded together.

There was a corresponding task ashore. Seattle served as the temporary berth while Juneau awaited infrastructure improvements for permanent homeporting. Storis’s first season had demonstrated that the converted ship could contribute to an Arctic mission; establishing a durable operating routine still required trained people, support systems and a suitable place to return.

## Sources

- [Newest Coast Guard icebreaker completes inaugural patrol](https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/4320890/newest-coast-guard-icebreaker-completes-inaugural-patrol/?ref=pvweekly.com) — U.S. Coast Guard · 2025-10-04.
- [USCGC Storis departs on maiden voyage](https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/article/4205955/uscgc-storis-departs-on-maiden-voyage/?ref=pvweekly.com) — U.S. Coast Guard · 2025-06-04.
- [Bringing Coast Guard Cutter Storis online](https://www.mycg.uscg.mil/News/Article/4367787/bringing-coast-guard-cutter-storis-online/?ref=pvweekly.com) — U.S. Coast Guard · 2025-12-29.