2025 was definitively the year of the icebreaker. In an increasingly polarized and hyper-partisan Washington, President Donald Trump’s White House picked up where Joe Biden left off with his strategic trilateral agreement, ICE Pact.
Buoyed by a massive cash injection from Congress — and despite serious tensions in other parts of foreign policy — the administration has carried on the agreement with Finland and Canada to bolster the icebreaker fleets of all three nations, securing a deal to buy four ships from Finland and attracting new entrants into the American maritime industrial base to aid in construction.
[This article is one of many in a series in which Breaking Defense reporters look back on the most significant (and entertaining) news stories of 2025 and look forward to what 2026 may hold.]
But as Congressman Joe Courtney, D-Conn., frequently says, “Shipbuilding is a long game.” And that is what I’ll be focusing on in 2026. The challenges ingrained in the American shipbuilding industrial base are deep and not every problem can be solved with cash — look no further than the Columbia and Virginia-class submarine programs for proof of that. How will new market entrants and new classes of ships contend with problems that have plagued Navy and Coast Guard shipbuilding for years?
First off, there’s new market entrants, such as Canada’s Davie, which earlier this year announced an acquisition (pending various regulatory reviews) of Gulf Copper shipyard’s facilities in Texas as well as a $1 billion investment to make it suitable for building icebreakers. Alongside those efforts, the company established Davie Defense to focus exclusively on its American endeavors.
Davie is well regarded in its home country of Canada, which has established a reputation for being proficient in building icebreakers. But, like many American shipbuilders these days, the company is in for an uphill battle in terms of workforce. Icebreakers are a uniquely difficult ship to build and one with which few yards in the United States have experience.
Can Davie simultaneously build a workforce capable of producing icebreakers while also overhauling its facilities in time to meet the US Coast Guard’s aggressive schedule goals?
Across the Atlantic in Finland, shipyards will collectively build four medium icebreakers for the United States. While those shipyards will not have to contend with the workforce challenges found in the US, they will face the demands. The US Navy and Coast Guard are historically difficult customers when it comes to vessel construction as the American federal government places an enormous number of requirements and regulations on its shipbuilders. In fairness to those regulators, some of those requirements stemmed from historical tragedies and a desire to save lives moving forward.
What numerous shipbuilding industry officials have told me to watch in 2026 is whether the Finns live up to their reputation when someone else is dictating the rules.
Then there’s Bollinger Shipyards which will have a hand in building both the medium security cutters and the larger Polar Security Cutters. Unlike Davie, the Louisiana-based shipbuilder is well-established in the United States. And unlike the Finns, they have experience dealing with the American federal government’s regulatory environment.
The challenge for them, and more broadly the Coast Guard as it seeks to massively expand its fleet, is the consistent political and economic will necessary from both the legislative and executive branches of government if they are going to be successful at executing two high-profile shipbuilding programs.
Shipbuilding is a long game. Just because icebreakers were in the spotlight in 2025 doesn’t mean they’ll get the celebrity treatment this upcoming year. Unfortunately for shipbuilders, regardless of what kind of ships they’re building, the problems don’t come and go with the spotlight. They are persistent and as many experts — far better versed in this subject than I — have pointed out: The reason the United States has the problems it does in its shipbuilding sector is due to years of inadequate funding and attention.
Now, for a personal note: I believe these questions will be key as we enter 2026, but someone else will have to take charge on them. After eight years of reporting on the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, I’ll be moving on from defense journalism at the end of 2025.
My time at Breaking Defense (and my previous publication, our friends and competitors, Inside Defense) has been transformative and I’m deeply grateful for everyone who has read my stories. If you’re curious what is next for me, then keep an eye on my LinkedIn for an announcement in the coming weeks. But for now, do know that I’ll still be talking and writing about American seapower in the new year.