NoCGV Svalbard

For MS Svalbard (1946 troop and refugee transport), see German night fighter direction vessel Togo.
History
Norway
Name: Svalbard
Builder: Hull at Tangen Verft, Kragerø Outhfitting at Langsten Tomrefjord
Cost: NOK 575 million (US$80 million)[Note 1]
Laid down: 9 August 2000
Launched: 17 February 2001
Commissioned: 15 December 2001
Identification: IMO number: 8640387
Status: In service
General characteristics
Class and type: Offshore patrol vessel
Displacement: 6,375 tonnes
Length:
  • 340.2 ft (103.7 m) (overall)
  • 292 ft (89 m) (waterline)
Beam: 62.6 ft (19.1 m)
Height: 27.2 ft (8.3 m)
Draught: 21.3 ft (6.5 m)
Installed power: Four Rolls-Royce Bergen BRG-8 diesel generators (4 × 3,390 kW)
Propulsion:
Speed: 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph)
Complement: 50 (20 Officers and 45 Other Ranks split into 3 shifts with 2 shifts on board at any one time)
Sensors and
processing systems:		 EADS TRS-3D /16 ES with IFF
Armament:
Aircraft carried: Capacity for two helicopters; one Lynx carried initially, NH90 from 2009

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.

Svalbard is the largest ship in Norway's military armed forces (by tonnage), designed to supplement the 3 other helicopter carrying ships of the Norwegian Coast Guard - the Nordkapp class 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 the Svalbard's design.[2][3] However, due to cost constraints the design was changed to a more conventional twin-shaft arrangement and as of 2015 the number of ships has been reduced to five with an option for six if it comes under the CAD$3.5 billion budget.[4] 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 the 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 AOPS's construction contract.[5]

Notes

  1. ↑ Radar and helicopter not included.

References

  1. ↑ References - Propulsion Products. ABB. Retrieved 2015-05-28.
  2. ↑ "Ottawa buying up to 8 Arctic patrol ships". CBC. 9 July 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  3. ↑ "Arctic patrol vessels approved by committee". CBC. 13 May 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-10.
  4. ↑ Cudmore, James (16 January 2015). "Canada's navy to get 5 or 6 Arctic ships, not 8". CBC News. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
  5. ↑ Milewski, Terry (2 May 2013). "Shipbuilding contract holds $250M mystery". CBC News. Retrieved 17 January 2015.
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