NoCGV Svalbard

The Norwegian Coast Guard icebreaker and offshore patrol vessel KV 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.

Svalbard is the largest ship in Norway's military armed forces (by tonnage), designed to supplement the 3 other helicopter carrying ships of the Norwegian Coast Guard - the Nordkapp class 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.

Svalbard

Svalbard (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈsʋɑ(ː)lbɑːɾ] ; formerly known by its Dutch name Spitsbergen) is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Situated north of mainland Europe, it is about midway between continental Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range from 74° to 81° north latitude, and from 10° to 35° east longitude. The largest island is Spitsbergen, followed by Nordaustlandet and Edgeøya.

Administratively, the archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county, but forms an unincorporated area administered by a governor appointed by the Norwegian government. Since 2002, Svalbard's main settlement, Longyearbyen, has had an elected local government, somewhat similar to mainland municipalities. Other settlements include the Russian mining community of Barentsburg, the research station of Ny-Ålesund, and the mining outpost of Sveagruva. Svalbard is the northernmost settlement in the world with a permanent civilian population. Other settlements are farther north, but are populated only by rotating groups of researchers; e.g. Alert, Nunavut—the northernmost year-round community.

Svalbard (disambiguation)

Svalbard may refer to:

Places

Ships

See also