Our latest icebreaker built to smash all the records

A new $2 billion icebreaker will be a ‘world leader’ and a ‘game changer’ for Australia’s Antarctic program.

Australian icebreaker Nuyina under construction in Damen shipyards, Romania. Picture: Damen/Australian Antarctic Division

A new $2 billion icebreaker will be a “world leader” and a “game changer” for Australia’s Antarctic program, with increased sailings and more support for external ­territories and groundbreaking science.

The RSV Nuyina, now in the final stages of construction in ­Romania, would be the world’s superior icebreaker, said Nick Browne, project leader for the Australian Antarctic Division.

“She will be one of, if not the most powerful icebreakers opera­ting in Antarctica,” said Mr Browne, who revealed that the new ship would be funded to ­operate at sea for 200 days each year, up 11 per cent from 180 days.

“When it comes to combining icebreaking capability into a multi­purpose platform capable of supporting scientific research and cargo or logistics functions, the Nuyina will be the world leader for this class of vessel.”

Australia’s new icebreaker, to replace the 30-year-old Aurora Australis, is on track to be delivered to the AAD in Hobart mid-next year. The scale of its impact on Australia’s Antarctic program is still not widely appreciated.

While the old and new ships have similar speeds and passenger capacities, the Nuyina’s capac­ity to break ice, spend long periods at sea, carry cargo and conduct marine science will all be vastly superior.

Nuyina, an Aboriginal word for the aurora australis, or southern lights, continues a naming trad­ition that stretches back to Mawson’s SY Aurora. It will have a 60 per cent greater icebreaking capability than its predecessor.

“It will now be possible to consider­ greater flexibility in scheduling logistics and scientific research voyages during times of the year outside of the austral summer season, due to the fact Nuyina will be more capable in the shoulder and winter seasons when ice conditions are more difficult,” Mr Browne said.

Nuyina, costing $529 million to build, with $1.38bn more set aside to operate and maintain it throughout its 30-year lifespan, will have a 300 per cent larger cargo capacity and 70 per cent larger fuel-carrying capacity than the Aurora Australis.

Its range will be 30,000 nautical miles, compared with the Aurora­ Australis’s 13,000. ­

“Nuyina will be a key enabler and game-changing capability for the future of Australia’s Antarctic program,” Mr Browne said.

The vessel’s increased cargo capacity would allow the AAD to carry out its logistic support of Antarctic stations faster, and more efficiently, resupplying severa­l in a single voyage.

This would leave more time for science, support for Heard and McDonald islands, and “other strategic outcomes underpinning Australia’s national interests in Antarctica”.

Australia is reinvigorating its Antarctic engagement by investing $450m to modernise its four research stations, and a further $450m to develop an overland ice traverse capability to deploy teams up to 1500km ­inland.

Mr Browne said Nuyina would help deliver both these projects, which come at a time when other nations are increasing their ­Antarctic commitments.

Russia and China have also investe­d in new icebreakers, while Australia, China and Europe are all trying to be the first to extract one-million-year-old ice encased deep within Antarctica’s frigid interior. Australia also plans to build a paved runway at Davis station.