ST. PETERSBURG, October 30. /TASS/. A ceremony of laying the Ivan Frolov scientific expedition vessel took place at the Admiralty Shipyards (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) in St. Petersburg. The ship will be the flagship vessel of the national hydrometeorology service, Roshydromet. The ceremony featured Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Patrushev.

"This vessel will be the flagship of the Roshydromet fleet. A powerful scientific complex will be located on board the vessel for research even in the harshest conditions, including studies of the ocean floor, atmosphere and space. Generally speaking, this multi-purpose project will ensure the smooth operation of Roshydromet's polar stations. I would like to stress that the study of the Arctic and Antarctic is a key area of the federal service that organizes more than 20 expeditions a year to track climate changes, collect data to develop the Northern Sea Route navigation and to verify Russia's continental shelf boundaries. The new vessel, the Ivan Frolov, will certainly build up our positions in the polar regions," the deputy prime minister said.

Russia's Minister of Natural Resources and Ecology Alexander Kozlov, who attended the ceremony, noted the vessel would be built in five years.

At the same time, the current flagship of the polar fleet, the Akademik Fedorov, would not stop working when the new vessel is ready, the hydrometeorology service's leader Igor Shumakov told TASS. "The Akademik Fedorov will continue working for as long as the Maritime Register allows it. We are constantly monitoring technical conditions of ships - this steamer is in a perfectly good condition, it will not be cut into metal. Besides, we have even older vessels, like, for example, our famous Mikhail Somov that is still working," he added.

About the ship

The Ivan Frolov will replace the Akademik Fedorov ship, built in 1987, that has exhausted the resource. The new vessel will be about 165 m long, its displacement - about 25,000 tons. It will house up to 20 laboratories, a hangar for two helicopters and a helipad. The hull will be of the Arc7 class, which allows passing through difficult polar ice without icebreakers. All parts and equipment will be domestic. The crew and special personnel will make 240 people. The vessel, due to be commissioned for at least 30 years, will be operated by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI).

Ivan Frolov (1949 - 2020) was a geographer, oceanographer, glacial geologist, polar explorer, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, winner of the Otto Schmidt Prize. From 1992 to 2017, Ivan Frolov headed the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute - Russia's oldest scientific research institution conducting a comprehensive study of the Earth's polar regions.