St. Petersburg’s Admiralty Shipyards have started mooring trials of the Project 0093 ice-resistant self-propelled platform “Severny Polyus” (‘The North Pole’ in Russian) built for the RF Federal Service for hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring.
So far, supplying power from shore-based facilities and operating the emergency diesel generator have been tested. The next things to be tested are the starting air systems and the cargo handling devices including lanyards, turnbuckles, and winches used to move heavylift equipment in the engine room.
The contract for building the platform was signed in April 2018, the vessel was laid down on April 10, 2019. The vessel construction is part of the Federal programme for the RF Artic region social and economic development.
The platform is designed as a fully-functional research center and is aimed for year-round missions in the Arctic Ocean to conduct geologic, acoustic, geophysical and oceanographic studies.
The vessel is capable of operating in ice conditions without the assistance of an icebreaker and can serve as a landing ground for heavy transport helicopters.
The 83.1 m LOA, 22.5 beam Arc8 platform has a speed of at least 10 knots and can accommodate 14 crew members and 34 researchers.