The once impenetrable Arctic waters have become the latest battleground for maritime supremacy between military and maritime vessels, as increased activity by Chinese and Russian coast guards and naval vessels in recent months has raised concerns in the United States
The Northwest Passage, a sea route north of Canada that connects the Arctic Ocean with the North Atlantic, can save around 4,500 nautical miles of transit time. This allows a ship’s journey from the Far East to Europe and from Russia to Europe to be cut in half, saving both time and money on bunker fuel. Warmer temperatures have lengthened travel times for ships traveling this waterway as polar icebreaker routes have frozen over and Russian and Chinese icebreakers dominate the region.
In 2025, more than 1,800 ships sailed the Arctic Polar Waterway, a 40 percent increase from 2013. In 2025, China completed 14 voyages, including a Cosco container ship, the first container ship to make a voyage through the waterway.
“From an economic and commercial perspective, it makes sense for shippers to take an interest in development in this region to save time,” said Aaron Roth, director and head of federal strategy and security at Chertoff Group.
Russia has a fleet of 45 icebreakers in the polar region, including eight nuclear-powered ships. China has three, including a nuclear-powered polar icebreaker allegedly under construction. The US currently has three icebreakers, but one of them is 50 years old.
People take part in the float-out ceremony of the nuclear-powered icebreaker Yakutia at the Baltic shipyard in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on November 22, 2020.
Olga Maltseva | Afp | Getty Images
“The reason we’ve fallen so far behind in the Arctic race or the icebreaker race is essentially because of the funding of the United States Coast Guard,” said Lou Sola, a former chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission and a partner at the lobbying firm Thorn Run Partners. “The Coast Guard is suffering from maintenance issues and trying to get enough supplies. They have resorted to cannibalizing one ship to use its parts on another so they can have an operational ship. As a result, the entire shipbuilding industry has really taken its toll. Especially the icebreakers,” he said.
president Donald Trump has increased focus on domestic shipbuilding initiatives, including polar icebreakers. But Trump is not alone in his concerns about activities in the Arctic, as quoted by the European NATO commander growing presence of Russia and China in the Arctic as a threat.
Maritime officials say the increasing activity in the Arctic is a national security issue and emphasize that the U.S. is considered an Arctic nation.
“These Arctic security cutters that the Coast Guard will build will provide sovereignty, freedom of navigation, and capabilities and capacity in this region that we do not currently have,” Roth said. “We definitely don’t want them to gain location advantages in the far north,” he added.
The concerns overlap with Trump’s other national security ambitions. At the beginning of 2026, Trump declared this wanted Greenland for national security.
The two Arctic routes a ship can take are near Greenland.
The Northwest Passage connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic to the Baffin Sea, taking ships near Greenland and then south of Greenland in the North Atlantic to the United Kingdom.
The Northeast Passage connects Europe and Asia along the northern coast of Russia. Ships also sail near Greenland on this route.
“I think it will be in our interest over time to ensure that our relationships with the Canadians, Greenland, Denmark and Northern Europe remain strong so that we can protect our interests in that region as well,” Roth said.
China and Russia are growing closer together in their efforts in the Arctic
The lack of funding comes at a time when the Chinese and Russian coast guards are deepening their ties. China is new Trade agreement Relations with Canada pose a similar problem for the U.S. “There are certainly geopolitics at play,” Roth said.
Russia’s access to the region is also crucial for the USA
“One of the most important things to highlight about these trade routes north of Canada is that they are the shortest distance for Russia to travel strategically and militarily,” Roth said. “The shortest distance between Russia and the United States is through this pass. It leads to Greenland and the United Kingdom. Strategically, from a surveillance perspective, it’s incredibly valuable for the United States to understand what’s going on in this region,” he said.
China and Russia’s rapprochement with the Arctic began with the signing of an agreement Statement of Intent in April 2023, with the coast guards of both countries working together to design a trade route. Last October, Russia and China signed another far-reaching agreement to jointly develop the Arctic passage, which China calls the Polar Silk Road.
“If we were to get into a conflict with Russia, China or even North Korea in the future, the shortest route from those countries to the United States would be via the great circle route through Greenland to the United States,” Roth said. “So it’s clear that the need for surveillance and the ability to intercept these missiles is critical. This is essentially to protect the United States and the United States.” Golden domeThat’s what the president is trying to do.”
How Trump and the US plan to bring back shipbuilding
President Trump announced the 2025 Shipbuilding Initiative for merchant ships and polar icebreakers. A second implementing regulation, which Maritime action plan, redoubled the administration’s ambitions to revitalize the U.S. shipping industry, increase capacity and take countermeasures Chinese dominance. Around $30 billion was made available. Of this money, 11 new ones Arctic security cutters are to be built.
The medium-sized icebreakers that provide access to waterways in the Great Lakes and along coastal waters in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic U.S. from Maine to Virginia, including the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay in winter, are also at the end of their lifespan.
The US Coast Guard recently announced a new program to acquire 11 medium-sized icebreakers.
One of the companies building some of these ships is Canada-based Davie Defense, which completed its acquisition of Gulf Cooper’s shipbuilding facilities in Texas last December. The new US company is one of four companies in the current shipbuilding contracts. Also involved in the shipbuilding program are Bollinger Shipyards, based in Louisiana, as well as Rauma Marine Constructions and Aker Arctic Technologies, based in Finland.
Davie Defense Gulf Copper will build a total of five polar icebreakers for the USA. The first two will be built in Finland, while the company is spending between $700 million and $1 billion renovating shipyards at the ports of Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas. The shipyards have been in operation since World War II, when they built ships.
“The infrastructure itself is a little tired, a little worn out,” said Kai Skvarla, CEO of Davie Defense and Gulf Copper.
Planned upgrades to facilities and physical infrastructure include automated cutting and welding machines to increase efficiency, as well as measures to support the productivity of the future workforce and produce cost-competitive products. The renovation is expected to take around two years.
Skvarla said the reopening of the Texas plants should coincide with the delivery of the first two polar icebreakers the company will build in Helsinki, Finland. The third Texas-made polar icebreaker will enter production in 2028 and take 48 months to build (delivery in 2032). Delivery of additional ships from Texas would occur in 2033 and 2034.
To meet the ambitious deadline, the company plans to significantly increase its U.S. workforce from the current 300 employees and hire over 2,000 additional employees. Once American workers are hired, they are placed in a training program that sends them to Finland to study in Helsinki and work with Finnish shipbuilders. This professional training is similar to the HR strategy for Hanwha Philly Shipyardanother key player in the effort to bring shipbuilding back to the United States. Hanwha Philly has a shipbuilding training program that sends employees to South Korea to work at the parent company’s Hanwha Shipping shipyards, where one ship is built per week.
Watch the video above to learn more about the intensifying battle for control of Arctic waterways.
