Kodiak residents may notice more military activity in the air, on land and at sea this week as the U.S. military conducts its annual joint training exercise known as Arctic Edge. Training began on Kodiak Island Tuesday and continues through Saturday, Feb. 28.

The Coast Guard commissioned its newest vessel in Kodiak on Friday, the fast response cutter Frederick Mann. That’s the sixth one based in Alaska. And more Coast Guard assets are in the works.

Coast Guard members were paid through October despite the government shutdown. Two Kodiak military spouses share what it means for their families if those checks stop.

Lt. Commander Tyler Vieria, with the Coast Guard’s facilities design and construction center, gave KMXT an update on the ongoing construction work on Coast Guard Base Kodiak.

Acting Commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Kevin Lunday says these 154-foot fast response cutters have the capability to move beyond the Gulf of Alaska, into places like the Aleutian Islands and the Bering Sea.

The second of three new Coast Guard cutters set to be homeported in Kodiak has arrived. According to a social media post from the Coast Guard on June 2, the Earl Cunningham reached the island on May 31 after a more than 7,000 mile, months-long journey from the shipyard in Louisiana.

The first of three new Coast Guard fast response cutters to be homeported in Kodiak is officially ready for duty, after the commissioning ceremony last week on April 3 for the John Witherspoon at Coast Guard Base Kodiak.

It's the newest fast response cutter stationed at Base Kodiak and is hosting tours of the vessel on March 29 from 1 to 4:30 p.m. It will be officially commissioned on April 3.

The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, paid U.S. Coast Guard Base Kodiak a roughly four-hour visit today, but officials haven’t said why.

“After years of hearing from the Coast Guard that they’re experiencing, maybe degraded performance, we don’t want [mariners] to lose hope,” Bryan Hinderberger, chief technical officer at the Marine Exchange of Alaska, said.