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 Norway's 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.
| Class and type: | Offshore patrol vessel |
| Displacement: | 6,375 tonnes |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 62.6 ft (19.1 m) |
| Draught: | 21.3 ft (6.5 m) |
| Depth: | 27.2 ft (8.3 m) |
| Installed power: | Four Rolls-Royce Bergen BRG-8 diesel generators (4 × 3,390 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| 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: |
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| Aircraft carried: | Capacity for two helicopters; one Lynx carried initially, NH90 from 2009 |
This vessel is what the Harry DeWolf Class was based on, and in 2000 it cost NOK $575 Million or $80 Million USD. In 2020 that is $120 Million USD or $180,097,200.00 NZD put our estimate of 2% inflation and 5 years we have $198,841,861.23 even 10 years $219,537,481.86 NZD and would practically come in under budget and has so much room for any calculation error on my behalf,
So she is in budget. But does she meet the needs and requirements. Can carry up to the NH-90 has limited ice breaking, can do the ship to shore is a proven design. Canada and even Russia are using this design. however a lot cheaper than the Harry De Wolf leaving some room in the budget for alterations to upgrade as she is an older design, to meet the requirements of the RNZN and the SOPV Project laid out in the DCP2019. Again she was designed for the arctic oceans not the southern oceans which have different wave lengths and patterns, as well as can be a lot rougher.
