#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. At the Admiralty Shipyards in St. Petersburg, the world’s largest scientific expedition vessel Ivan Frolov’s construction has begun. It is designed to work in Arctic conditions.
“In the coming years, the Roshydromet federal environment monitoring organization will have a scientific expedition vessel that has no analogues in the world – 165 meters in length, almost 25 thousand tons of displacement, capable of carrying 2.5 thousand tons of general cargo. The vessel is at the same time an icebreaker, a tanker, a dry cargo carrier, and a passenger vessel. No one in the world has such a vessel that could serve Antarctic expeditions”, said the Roshydromet head Igor Shumakov.
According to him, the Ivan Frolov ship will be able to replace outdated ones operating today in Antarctica. The new vessel is supposed to be put into operation in December 2028, and at the beginning of 2029 it will set off on its first expedition.
“We, polar explorers, are really looking forward to this vessel, we need it to work in Antarctica. This will be a new flagship that will allow solving the most complex expeditionary and scientific tasks. This is a floating piece of a scientific institute, an observatory that can work while on an expedition”, said Alexander Makarov, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute director.
Ivan Frolov will be equipped with transformable laboratories capable of changing to meet emerging scientific tasks. In addition to 70 crew members, it will be able to transport about 170 passengers – scientists, builders and other specialists.
The ship got its name in honor of the former head of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute Ivan Frolov (1949–2020) – geographer, oceanologist, glaciologist, polar explorer, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the O. Schmidt Award laureate.
We talked about the Ivan Frolov’s features in one of the previous publications.
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Text: Denis Kozhevnikov, photo: Nikolay Shchipko
