Admiralteiskie Verfi JSC (a company of United Shipbuilding Corporation, USC) has commenced sea trials of ice-resistant self-propelled platform North Pole (Severny Polyus), IAA PortNews correspondent reports from the ceremony. The ship was ordered by the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet).
The trials will be held in the Baltic Sea to check communication, ranging and navigation systems as well as operation diesel generators, main engine and auxiliary systems including auxiliary boiler units, etc.
The shipbuilding contract between Admiralteiskie Verfi shipyard and the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet) was signed in April 2018. The keel-laying ceremony was held on 10 April 2019. The platform is being built in the framework of the state programme on social and economic development of the Arctic Region of the Russian Federation.
Upon completion of sea trials and required procedures the ship will be delivered to Roshydromet. Then the ship will join the fleet of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI).
Press center of Admiralteiskie Verfi earlier confirmed the plans to deliver the platform in July 2022. The ship may leave for the expedition as part of ice tests in autumn 2022.
“It is the first platform built in modern Russia so engineers and builders had to face numerous challenges,” AARI Director Aleksand Makarov told IAA PortNews in the Agency’s Special Project.
The platform specifications: LOA: 83.1 m; breadth: 22.5 m; draft: 8.6 m; displacement: over 10,000 t; power propulsion unit: 4,200 kW; speed: at least 10 knots; hull strength - Arc8; fuel endurance: about 2 years; service life: at least 25 years; crew - 14; scientific personnel - 34. Class notation: KM(*) Arc5[1] AUT1-C HELIDECK-F Special purpose ship by Russian Maritime Register of Shipping.
Read more about ice-resistant platform North Pole in PortNews Media Group’s Special Project publication available in Russian >>>>