St. Petersburg-based Admiralty Shipyard has delivered the ice-resistant self-propelled platform “Severny Polyus” (North Pole in Russian), United Shipbuilding Corp said in a statement.
The vessel left the yard for the Big port of St. Petersburg, she it will be prepared for a passage to Murmansk and for her maiden expedition.
The contract to build the platform was signed in April 2018. The keel was laid on April 10, 2019. The vessel was under the federal program for social and economic development of the Arctic Region of the Russian Federation.
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.
Photo: United Shipbuilding Corp