Brazil commissions new ship to support its Antarctic projects

The Brazilian Navy commissioned a new research vessel to support the projects of the Brazilian Antarctic Program, with which it has been present on the White Continent for more than 40 years.

The vessel, of 94 meters in length and autonomy for a crew of 92 people for 70 days, was entrusted to the Brazilian shipyard Polar 1 Shipbuilding, which will have three years to deliver until September 2025, official sources informed this Monday.

The new Antarctic Support Ship (Napant) will replace the Ary Rangel Oceanographic Support Ship, in the service of the Brazilian Navy since 1994, which was built in Norway in 1981 for that country’s expeditions in both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

The contract signed with the shipyard based in Aracruz, a municipality in the state of Espírito Santo (southeast), provides for the vessel to have all the necessary conditions to be able to operate in summer and autumn on the White Continent and navigate in places with both recent ice formation and older layers.

To operate as an icebreaker, it is necessary to build a vessel with a hull in a specific format, reinforced at the bow and with a special steel-reinforced submarine belt.

According to the contract, the new vessel will be 94 meters long, 18.5 meters wide, with a draft of 6 meters and diesel-electric propulsion engines.

The vessel’s mission will be to support the Brazilian Antarctic Program (Proantar) projects, which Brazil launched in 1982 to promote scientific research and the Brazilian presence in the Antarctic Region.

In addition to transporting scientific equipment, materials, and supplies to the Antarctic Station Comandante Ferraz, the Brazilian base on King George Island, the vessel will have to support oceanographic studies on its voyages to the White Continent.

“For Brazil to maintain its status as a consultative member of the Antarctic Treaty, it must exercise presence and conduct relevant scientific research, for which a new vessel is necessary,” explained the Navy’s Director General of Material, Admiral José Augusto Vieira de Menezes.

“As a signatory member of the Treaty, Brazil has the right to vote and participate in the decision-making forums on the fate of the southern continent,” the officer added.

With information from EFE