50 Proceedings Fall 2025 sets the Coast Guard’s Alaska SAR operational region apart from others. Most of the state’s shorelines are remote with no communications or manmade structures in sight and cellular and VHF communication are only available within the immediate vicinity of the sparsely scattered population centers. Subsequently, terrain inter- ference and heavy cloud cover make satellite communi- cations unpredictable. In all Coast Guard districts except Alaska, VHF cov- erage falls under Sea Area A1, in which more than 90% of the offshore area, up to 20 nm from territorial baselines, is covered by the Coast Guard Rescue 21 VHF monitor- ing system. In most areas in the Lower 48, Coast Guard sectors can rent broadcast space on any number of well-main- tained, commercially available towers. In the wilds of Alaska, very few of these towers exist with line-of-sight marine coverage. The Coast Guard maintains and moni- tors a total of 34 VHF towers across the state, most of which are in remote backcountry locations inaccessible except by air or sea, and only when the weather allows. These “high sites” run off a mixture of generators and solar panels. During summer months, the solar panels enjoy 18-20 hours of daylight. Conversely, winter allows for only 4-6 hours of daylight and the frequent snow and ice cover render the solar panels less effective. Year- round, the generators are at the mercy of the weather for maintenance and fuel replenishment. The high sites also lack critical response enhance- ment characteristics like VHF direction finding, a capa- bility present in all other districts, allowing command and control centers to triangulate positions of distress transmissions. Instead, Arctic District search planners must make guarded assumptions when responding to uncorrelated distress broadcasts, often sending assets with very limited position information to search areas greater than 1,000 square nm. Asset Availability To cover an entire AOR of nearly 4 million square nm, Arctic District and its subordinate sectors coordinate SAR missions with two air stations, three boat stations, and 11 ships, some of which are past the end of their projected service lives. The Coast Guard’s final three 110- foot patrol boats have recently been decommissioned from their respective homeports in Western Alaska. Apart from Oceania District, all other Coast Guard dis- tricts exceed these metrics. At any given time, and in accordance with statutory mandates, these assets are tasked with carrying out mis- sions other than SAR, including maritime law enforce- ment and security, border control, counter-drug, and homeland defense operations. Maintenance schedules, including unscheduled maintenance, malfunctions due to age, and staffing shortages are frequent factors limit- ing asset availability. Additionally, both air stations maintain a “self-res- cue” policy to ensure the safety of their air crews when they’re operating far offshore. Typically, if a helicopter is intended to operate more than 100 miles offshore, an additional fixed wing or rotary aircraft and crew are put on standby in case the responding air crew runs into Each asset listed varies in size, resource number, and crew complement. Coast Guard chart
