The U.S. Coast Guard has six cutter classes in active production or under contract right now: the Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutter, the Polar Security Cutter, the newly launched Arctic Security Cutter, the Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter, the Chief Petty Officer-class Waterways Commerce Cutter, and the recently commissioned icebreaker USCGC Storis. The push amounts to the largest fleet recapitalization since World War II, backed by roughly $25 billion appropriated through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed on July 4, 2025. Below is what each new Coast Guard ship program looks like today, in order of size and strategic priority.
Offshore Patrol Cutter (Heritage Class)
The Heritage-class OPC is the Coast Guard’s replacement for its aging medium endurance cutters, some more than 50 years old. The plan is 25 hulls acquired in three stages at an estimated total cost above $17 billion. The program received $4.3 billion through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. It has also been the service’s most troubled shipbuilding effort.
Stage 1: Eastern Shipbuilding Group
Eastern Shipbuilding Group of Panama City, Florida, won the original OPC contract in September 2016 for up to nine hulls at a potential value of $2.38 billion. Hurricane Michael struck the yard in October 2018, and the Department of Homeland Security granted extraordinary contractual relief of up to $659 million in October 2019, restructuring the contract to four hulls.
Construction proceeded on what the Government Accountability Office called an “unstable design.” As of May 2025, only 93 percent of the two-dimensional design drawings for the first hull were finished. The lead ship, USCGC Argus (WMSM-915), was originally expected in 2021; delivery is now no earlier than December 2026. The second hull, USCGC Chase (WMSM-916), missed its April 2024 target.
In July 2025, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced the termination for default of hulls three and four, Ingham (WMSM-917) and Rush (WMSM-918), after ESG said the orders would cause unsustainable losses. By November 2025, ESG halted work on all four hulls, citing “significant financial strain caused by the program’s structure and conditions.” A full contract termination between the Coast Guard and Eastern Shipbuilding was finalized in June 2026. DHS earlier issued a request for information about towing the nearly finished Argus and Chase to another yard for completion; no resolution on that has been publicly confirmed.
Stage 2: Austal USA
In June 2022, Austal USA of Mobile, Alabama, won a fixed-price incentive contract for up to 11 OPCs (hulls 5 through 15) at a total potential value of $3.3 billion. Construction of the fifth hull, Pickering (WMSM-919), began in August 2024, and its keel was authenticated in December 2025. The sixth hull, Icarus (WMSM-920), entered production in August 2025. In September 2025, the Coast Guard exercised $314 million in options for long-lead-time materials covering three additional cutters.
Pickering is scheduled for delivery in 2027. Austal is also building a new final assembly facility at Mobile with three bays capable of producing OPCs and Navy ocean surveillance ships simultaneously; that facility is now slated for completion in early 2027, later than the original summer 2026 target. The GAO has warned that Austal, like ESG before it, began construction before achieving a stable design.
Stage 3
The final 10 hulls (OPCs 16 through 25) have not been contracted. The FY 2027 budget requests $204 million for the program and initiates Stage 3 planning. The GAO has recommended waiting for operational test results from earlier hulls before proceeding, and reporting cost goals for each stage separately.
Polar Security Cutter
The Polar Security Cutter program will deliver three heavy icebreakers to replace the aging USCGC Polar Star, currently the nation’s only operational heavy icebreaker. A joint Coast Guard-Navy program office manages the effort, and Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding is the builder after acquiring Halter Marine in 2022.
The lead ship, USCGC Polar Sentinel, was originally due in 2024. In May 2025 the Coast Guard authorized Bollinger to begin full production after the functional design reached more than 90 percent completion; the yard had been producing test modules since 2023. Polar Sentinel is a 23,000-ton vessel based on the German icebreaker Polarstern II and built with EQ-47 steel, a material that has proven difficult to work with.
Costs have climbed steeply. The original estimate was roughly $2.7 billion for three hulls. In March 2025 the Coast Guard awarded a contract modification of nearly $1 billion for increased costs on the first hull alone, bringing that ship’s cost goal to about $3.4 billion, nearly the original estimate for all three. The Congressional Budget Office put the total three-ship cost at about $5.1 billion as of 2025. Polar Sentinel is now expected around 2030, with the second and third ships projected for 2032 and 2034. The program received $4.3 billion through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Arctic Security Cutter
The Arctic Security Cutter is the Coast Guard’s newest major shipbuilding program. A 2023 fleet mix analysis concluded the service needs eight to nine polar icebreakers total, including four to five medium ASCs alongside the heavy PSCs. The current plan calls for 11 ASCs, funded by $3.5 billion from the FY 2025 budget reconciliation and supported by the broader $25 billion appropriation.
In February 2026 the Coast Guard completed contract awards for all 11 hulls across three builders:
- Davie Defense: five cutters under a $3.5 billion contract. Davie is the U.S. arm of the U.K.-owned Inocea Group. Two of the five will be built at the Helsinki Shipyard in Finland; three will be built at Gulf Copper facilities in Galveston and Port Arthur, Texas.
- Bollinger Shipyards: four cutters, using a design developed by Seaspan Shipyards with Aker Arctic Technology.
- Rauma Marine Constructions: two cutters.
The first ASC is expected in early 2028, and all five Davie Defense vessels are scheduled for delivery by February 2035. The first two will be homeported in Kodiak, Alaska, with a third to follow in Seward once shore infrastructure is ready. The program falls under the ICE Pact, a trilateral agreement among the United States, Canada, and Finland to share icebreaker construction capacity.
USCGC Storis
To bridge the gap while the PSC and ASC programs work through long timelines, the Coast Guard bought a commercial vessel. In November 2024 the service purchased the M/V Aiviq, a 360-foot, polar class 3-equivalent icebreaker originally built in 2012 for oil and gas work, for $125 million. Another $25 million was planned for refurbishment.
The vessel was commissioned as USCGC Storis (WAGB-21) in Juneau, Alaska, on August 9, 2025. It is the first major Coast Guard icebreaker commissioned since 1999 and brings the nation’s operational icebreaker inventory to three, joining Polar Star and the medium icebreaker Healy. Juneau is the designated permanent homeport, but Storis is temporarily berthed in Seattle with the other two icebreakers while Juneau infrastructure upgrades are completed.
Fast Response Cutter (Sentinel Class)
The Sentinel-class Fast Response Cutter has been the Coast Guard’s most productive shipbuilding line. Built by Bollinger Shipyards, the 154-foot patrol cutters handle coastal security, drug and migrant interdiction, fisheries enforcement, and search and rescue. As of late 2025, the Coast Guard had accepted delivery of 61 FRCs, with 59 in active service.
In September 2025 the Coast Guard exercised a Bollinger contract option for 10 more cutters, bringing the program to 77 vessels. The first of those additional hulls is expected in fiscal year 2028. The service has begun discussions with Bollinger for at least 10 more FRCs beyond that, supported by $1 billion from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. FRCs have also been pressed into missions traditionally handled by larger cutters, including distant deployments in the Indo-Pacific.
Waterways Commerce Cutter (Chief Petty Officer Class)
The Waterways Commerce Cutter program replaces the Coast Guard’s inland tender fleet, average age more than 57 years. The new Chief Petty Officer-class vessels come in three variants: 16 River Buoy Tenders (WLR), 11 Inland Construction Tenders (WLIC), and three Inland Buoy Tenders (WLI), for 30 hulls total.
Birdon America holds the primary contract, awarded in 2022 at $1.187 billion, covering the WLR and WLIC variants, with construction underway in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. The first WLIC (1601) entered production in June 2025, followed by the first WLR (1801) in September 2025 and a second WLIC in January 2026, ahead of schedule. Keels for the first three hulls were authenticated in March 2026, and both variants under the current contract are expected to be completed in 2027. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act added $162 million to accelerate ordering of three additional cutters. The WLI variant is being designed separately in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Marine Design Center and will be contractor-built under a future contract.
What Is Not Being Built
The Legend-class National Security Cutter line is closed at 10 ships, homeported in Charleston, Alameda, and Honolulu. An 11th NSC, to be named Friedman, was under construction by Huntington Ingalls Industries but was canceled by DHS in June 2025 after a year-long delay in projected completion, cost overruns, and supply chain problems. The GAO reported that construction stopped after discovery of pervasive corrosion that would have cost up to $117 million to fix and pushed delivery to February 2029. Cancellation saved $260 million, redirected to the OPC and PSC programs; the Coast Guard also received $135 million in spare parts to sustain the existing 10 cutters. No further NSCs are planned.
Homeland Security Cutter-Ocean
Not every addition to the fleet is a new hull. In June 2026 the Coast Guard launched the Homeland Security Cutter-Ocean program, contracting with Louisiana-based Bordelon Marine to use the offshore support vessel Connor Bordelon as a floating logistics platform. Operated by civilian mariners with an embarked Coast Guard crew directing operations, the ship delivers fuel, provisions, equipment, and personnel to cutters at sea, reducing port returns. Operations focus on the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and other Western Hemisphere waters. The Coast Guard is using the effort to evaluate a larger commercial role in sustaining fleet operations.