Why the US is buying icebreakers from Finland

While President Donald Trump insists that the United States should have Greenland, his increased focus on the Arctic region has led Washington to order new icebreakers.

The USA turned to the world’s expert, Finland, for these ships that can navigate in seas covered with solid ice.

In Aker Arctic Technology’s ice laboratory, temperatures are below zero as a scale model of the icebreaker sails in a 70-meter-long simulation tank.

It opens a smooth channel on the frozen surface of the water.

Being tested at a facility in the Finnish capital Helsinki, it is a design for the country’s next generation of icebreakers.

“It is very important that it has sufficient structural strength and engine power,” says ice performance engineer Riikka Matala.

The company’s CEO, Mika Hovilainen, adds that the shape of the ship is also very important. “You need to have a hull form that can bend downwards and break the ice,” he says. “Not cutting, not slicing.”

Finland is the undisputed world leader when it comes to icebreakers. Finnish companies I designed 80% 60% of those currently in operation were built in shipyards in Finland.

Maunu Visuri, president and chief executive of Finnish state company Arctia, which operates a fleet of eight icebreakers, explains that the country is showing its way out of necessity.

“Finland is the only country in the world where all the harbors may freeze during wintertime,” he says, adding that 97% of all goods to the country are imported by sea.

During the coldest months, icebreakers keep Finnish ports open and work as guides for large cargo ships. “It’s really a necessity for Finland. We say Finland is an island.”

It was this expertise that noticed Trump announce in October It was stated that the USA plans to order four icebreakers from Finland for the US Coast Guard.

Seven more ships, which the US calls “Arctic Security Cutters”, will be built in the US using Finnish designs and expertise.

“We buy the best icebreakers in the world, and Finland is known for making them,” Trump said.

Under US law, the country’s navy and coast guard ships must be built domestically, but in this case the president waived this requirement for national security reasons. He referred to “aggressive military posture and economic encroachment by foreign enemies,” referring to Russia and China.

This US concern comes as climate change continues to make the Arctic Ocean more hospitable to cargo ships; at least if the icebreakers cut the road open. This opens commercial trade routes from Asia to Europe, through Russia or north of Alaska and the Canadian mainland down to Greenland.

Reduced ice levels also mean that oil and gas fields beneath the Arctic are more accessible.

“There is a lot more traffic in this part of the world now,” says Peter Rybski, a retired U.S. Navy officer and Helsinki-based Arctic expert.

“You have an active oil and gas exploration and extraction industry in Russia, as well as an emerging transshipment route from Europe to Asia.”

First contracts after Trump’s draft announcement last fall rewarded On December 29th.

Finland’s Rauma Marine Constructions will build two icebreakers for the US Coast Guard at its shipyard in the Finnish port of Rauma. The first ship is planned to be delivered in 2028.

Four more will be built in Louisiana, and another six will be produced using an Aker Arctic Technology diesel-electric design.

The US orders are part of an effort to match the number of Russian icebreakers. There are currently about 40 in Russia, eight of which are nuclear-powered.

In comparison, there are only three currently in operation in the United States.

Meanwhile, China operates approximately five polar-capable ships. “None of them are technically icebreakers,” Rybski says, pointing out that their designs do not meet strict criteria. “But they are increasing their fleet.”

He adds that China is sending more and more of these “research” ships to arctic waters It includes areas between Alaska and Russia’s far east, which the United States considers its “exclusive economic zone.”

“With limited response possibilities, this becomes a problem [for the US]”

Lin Mortensgaard, a researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies, assesses that Trump’s desire to expand the icebreaker fleet goes beyond operating in the ice-covered Arctic seas. He says it’s also about projecting power.

“No matter how many aircraft carriers you have and how much you use them to threaten states, you cannot direct your aircraft carrier towards the center of the Arctic Ocean,” he says.

“Icebreakers are the one type of naval vessel that signals that you are an Arctic state with Arctic capabilities. And I think a lot of the US rhetoric is about that.”

In Finland, the Helsinki Shipyard occupies a dock on the capital’s waterfront. This is where half the world’s icebreakers are built. The company, today owned by Canadian firm Davie, also hopes to receive new contracts from the U.S. Coast Guard.

“The geopolitical situation has definitely changed,” says Kim Salmi, the shipyard’s general manager.

“We have an eastern neighbor here [Russia]. They are building themselves [new] fleet. And the Chinese are building their own fleet.”

He adds: “The United States, Canada and western allies in general are looking for the balance of power.”

In a massive shipbuilding hangar, workers are cutting and welding steel for the shipyard’s newest icebreaker, a heavy-duty Arctic ship called Polarmax that will be destined for the Canadian coast guard.

Thanks to a modern production method and decades of experience, the Finns are able to build these complex ships quite quickly (somewhere between two and a half to three years).

“We’ve been practicing this for over 100 years,” says Arctia’s Visuri. “There is a cycle of designers, operators and builders. That is why Finland is the superpower of icebreakers.”