NoCGV Svalbard Informations

The Norwegian Coast Guard icebreaker and offshore patrol vessel NoCGV Svalbard (W303) was constructed by Langsten AS at Tangen Verft shipyard in Kragerø and launched on 17 February 2001. She was named 15 December in Tomrefjord with Minister of Defence Kristin Krohn Devold as godmother, and delivered to the Coast Guard on 18 January 2002. She entered service in mid-2002 and is homeported in Sortland. Her primary operating area is in the Arctic waters north of Norway, the Barents Sea and around the Svalbard islands. On 21 August 2019, Svalbard became the first Norwegian ship to reach the North Pole.

Svalbard is the second largest ship in Norways military armed forces (by tonnage), designed to supplement the three other helicopter-carrying ships of the Norwegian Coast Guard - the Nordkapp-class offshore patrol vessels. She is NBC-protected with constant overpressure, and is capable of icebreaking and emergency towing up to 100,000 tons. The Norwegian coastline is generally free of ice, thus Svalbard is the only active Norwegian icebreaking-capable vessel. A double acting ship, Svalbard is designed to break ice both ahead and astern.

On 9 July 2007 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had announced that Canada would be building six to eight arctic offshore patrol ships (AOPS) for the Royal Canadian Navy, modeled after Svalbards design. However, due to cost constraints the design was changed to a more conventional twin-shaft arrangement and as of 2015[update] the number of ships has been reduced to five with an option for six if it comes under the CAD$3.5 billion budget. The project has been criticized for its inexplicable high costs. For example, Irving Shipbuilding was awarded a CAD$288 million design contract for the vessel while the design of Svalbard and similar patrol ships within other countries paid less than one-tenth as much. In addition, other similar vessels were built for about one third of the value of the Canadian AOPSs construction contract.

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