Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex in the Russian Far East has signed a contract to build two multifunctional research vessels for the Far East branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
It has been many years since such vessels were last built in Russia, so modernizing the research fleet is an important task. The project was designed by Lazurit marine engineering bureau.
The vessels are aimed for conducting fundamental and applied research in the ocean to collect hydrometeorology, geomagnetic, gravitation, biologic and environmental data, etc.
The vessel will have onboard laboratory equipped with most advanced instruments and devices to analyze the data collected in real time. They will be equipped with helipads
The vessels will have Arc4 ice class enabling them to sail in the ice up to 0.6 meter thick in winter and spring an up to 0.8 meter in summer and autumn without the assistance of an icebreaker.
They will be 122.5 m long and have a displacement of 8.1 thousand tons. They will be capable to sail for 50 days unassisted with a navigation range of 7.5 thousand miles.