On the way to its initial Arctic deployment U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Storis (WAGB 21) has transited through the Panama Canal. The polar class 3-equivalent vessel departed from the Bollinger Shipyards in Pascagoula, Mississippi on June 3, 2025.
The vessel arrived near the canal’s northern entrance on June 11. After an 18-hour hold outside Limon Bay near the Gatun locks, Storis proceeded through the first set of Panama Canal locks on its route to the Pacific. The transit took around 8 hours and the vessel exited the canal through the Miraflores locks late on June 12.
U.S. military ships have been entitled to “expeditious passage through the Canal at all times” since handing-over operation of the canal to Panama in 1999. In recent months there have been ongoing tensions with the Trump Administration over control of the key waterway.
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