Replacement ships for what is called the Polar Security Cutter program have been ordered for a new generation of USCG icebreakers.

[4] Polar Star's shell plating and associated internal support structure are fabricated from steel that has especially good low-temperature strength.

Propeller issues continued through 1977-1988, leading Coast Guard to invoke the warranty clause of the Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company.

Polar Star has supported National Science Foundation and United States Antarctic Program objectives in the Antarctic, breaking a channel through the fast ice to resupply the McMurdo Station in the Ross Sea and the close quarter ice escorts of Military Sealift Command resupply ships through the channel in support of Operation Deep Freeze, which deliver food, fuel, and other goods to the station annually.

[7] Polar Star is the only ship in the United States' fleet capable of breaking the fast ice in McMurdo Sound.

In February 1998 Polar Star received a report from the Greewave that they were disabled and adrift off Cape Adare.

Arriving on scene the next day Polar Star took the Greewave in tow and proceeded on a 12-day 1,515 mile transit to Lyttelton, New Zealand.

Operational highlights include Deep Freeze '83 - the circumnavigation of Antarctica completed in 69 days ferrying U.S. State Department inspectors to 14 scientific research stations, assisting with waterside security during the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, completing the first solo breakout of McMurdo Sound (Operation Deep Freeze 1988), seven consecutive Operation Deep Freeze missions between 2014 and 2020, as well as reaching 72 degrees 11 minutes north (the farthest north any US government surface vessel reached in the winter).