As part of an effort to secure the Arctic and partner with their Canadian and Russian counterparts on common maritime interests, the crews of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutters Midgett and Healy teamed up this summer to patrol the Bering and Chukchi Seas off the Alaskan Coast.
Late last month, Cutter Midgett, a national security cutter homeported in Honolulu, ran joint operations and training with the Canadian coast guard ship Sir Wilfrid Laurier in the Chukchi Sea, as well as partnered with Russian Border Guard vessel Kamchatka to patrol the U.S.-Russia maritime boundary north of the Diomede Islands. Midgett also joined medium polar icebreaker Coast Guard Cutter Healy on a joint transit of the Bering Strait.
In each instance, they were supported by Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak crews who were sent to Kotzebue, Alaska in an HC-130J Hercules airplane.
“The simultaneous presence of Healy and Midgett in the Arctic region signals the increasing demand for the merged icebreaking and maritime security capability required of future polar security cutters,” the agency said.
