K/V “Svalbard”
- Coast Guard Ship From Langsten
The new pride of the Navy, K/V “Svalbard” was taken over from Langsten AS on the 15th of December (2001?). The Coast Guard Ship is the Navy’s only ice-breaker and the largest vessel in the whole force. This is Langsten’s build number 182. The ship cost 575 millioner kroner (101 MCAD as of 24 Jan 2006).
…..Minister of Defence Kristin Krohn Devold, with …. Kjell Inge Rokke and other dignitaries ringside. (Rokke owns Aker which in turn owns Langsten). It has taken eight years to realise this vessel, from when the project was begun at SFK in August 1993 to this day. So this was a big day, to have the ship handed over. In 1993 it was intended that the new Coast Guard Vessel should be ready in 1997, but suddenly in 1995 production was stopped. That was a lack of money. Then the force planning guidance de-prioritized the ship and from 1996 until 1998 it was uncertain if the ship would be completed at all. But in 1999 it was put back into the plan again, and in December of that year contracts were let with Langsten. Langsten has a solid tradition of building modern marine vessels. Amongst others the spy ship “Marjata” was built here.
The hull of “Svalbard” was built by Tangen Yards. It is built in special steel and comprises at least 50,000 pieces and 40 sections. By the 17th of February (2000?) the hull was launched and towed to Tomrefjorden in Romsdal, where Langsten finished the vessel.
K/V “Svalbard” is a gigantic vessel with a displacement of some 6300 tonnes, a length of 103 meters and a breadth of over 19 meters making it the Navy’s largest for the foreseeable future.
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The Coast Guard
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K/V “Svalbard” is classified as a Polar 10 Icebreaker by DNV (Det Norske Veritas), the highest polar ice class defined in DNV’s regulations and the most powerful icebreaker ever built in Norway. The vessel is specially built for sailing in ice infested waters, and be able to operate in multi-year (year old?) polar ice with a thickness of up to one meter. The northern Barents Sea, especially in winter time, will be the vessel’s primary area of operation. The ship can also break ice ridges, back up and “screw guard (?)” about four metes deep. (Not clear on this – may have to do with the azipod drive and the ability of similarly designed, double-ended ice-breaking tankers, to turn around and drive through ice backwards).
The vessel has also a De-Ice class notation, being equipped with an anti-icing system with a capacity of 1500 kW. She has got 17 km of heating cable in all outside decks and the front of the boat to this purpose. This prevents icing which can be a great problem in arctic (operations?).
K/V “Svalbard” has a helicopter deck and hangar and will have a helicopter on board when the vessel is out on patrol. In the hangar there is room for two helicopters. The advantage of helicopters is that they can operate freely and relatively far from the vessel. In addition to supervision and control of the fishery violations the helicopter is a really important resource for search, rescue and assistance.
The ship will bring to the Coast Guard many useful capabilities including ice-breaker, towing vessel and helicopter platform. The vessel has really good capacity in search and rescue and can carry through “clean-up” (?) of polluted environments in the extremity (?) (might also just mean that it can continue to operate in a very harsh environment).
Dimensions
Length overall 103.7 m
Length post to post 89.0 m
Greatest width 19.1 m
Draught (KVL) 6.5 m
Tank capacity is about 500 tonnes of fuel oil and 200 tonnes of fresh water. That is enough for 127 persons.
Class: DNV *1A1, Icebreaker Polar 10, RPS, F-A, E0, HELDK-SH, De-Ice, FiFi1.
Machinery
The ship is diesel-electric with a power plant of four Bergen Diesel BRG-8 engines, producing around 13,020 kW altogether. Propulsion is provided by two Azipods, each of 5000 kW, which are classified Icebreaker Polar 10. In addition ABB “provided” (?) a conventional Azipod of about 15 MW power output to obtain this classification. RPS in the class notation means that the ship has “redundant propulsion separated”.
The vessel is also outfitted with a Brunvoll bow-thruster (?). Harbour power generation consists of a Volvo Penta diesel engine of 1071 kW which drives a Stamford generator of 1339 kVa. The pumping system is from Ing. Per Gjerdrum AS, the separators from Westfalia and the compressors from Sperre. Heat exchangers are manufactured by APV and supplied by AS Norco Oslo.
Engine room isolation is by R&M Industries AS and the ventilation is by ABB Miljo. …. is from Pyro and tank monitoring systems by ABB. The engine room is fire-protected with the Argonite system from Heien-Larssen and an alarm system from Autronica.
Deck
The ship is notably outfitted with a helicopter deck and a hangar with room for two helicopters. Also installed onboard is a helifuel-system, with outfitting for refuelling of each helicopter together with other types, both on the heli-deck and in the air. The vessel can therefore function as a mobile platform at sea (and re-provisioning island?) for military and other helicopters on operations that would otherwise not be possible. The advanced foam monitor system on the heli-deck is supplied by Heien-Larssen, but the Fi-Fi system is from Kvaerner Eureka. The heli-deck is also equipped with gyro-stabilised in-flight reference system (light) and contour lighting, “virtually making manning free operations (?)”. Flight Centre has also been instrumented with a datalink to the Norwegian Meteorolgical Institute to supply weather reports.
The deck gear, including hatches, deck machinery such as anchor, vessel and towing winches are supplied by Hydrakraft. The anchor and….is from Erling Haug, windows and light ports from Marine Aluminium, water tight doors from Winell and fire doors from Nor-Pro. Davits from MOB-baten. Deck and Navigation lights? are from Tranberg, searchlight? From Norselight. The ship is instrumented by a system from International Maling.
Interior and Miscellaneous.
The vessel is for a crew of 20 officers and 28 other ranks, with a four-man helidet. In addition the the ship has accommodation for more than 75 persons.
The interior is held “secure” as there is a gas citadel / over-pressure ventilation system where all incoming ship’s air will be scrubbed for radio-active, bacteriological and chemical contamination.
Interior work spaces are outfitted by R&M Industries. TeamTech supplied the incinerator and Evac vacuum toilet system. Electro-technicals consultant was Skan-El, but ABB Installations AS supplied the electric installation. E0-system is the ABB Advant Station 500 series.
The electronic outfit was installed by Electronicon AS. The outfit includes advanced instrumentation with air and surface radar, colour-, black/white and IR cameras, sonar …. for over and under water communication. The system has the capability to record, store and present all this information real-time and time-delay (?), with “intention” (?) of documenting and evaluating incidents. This gives the vessel a good capacity in the role of Command Vessel in large operations in connection with rescue, pollution and sovereignty operations.
