MV ''Xue Long 2'' () is a Chinese
icebreaking
An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters, and provide safe waterways for other boats and ships. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to sm ...
research vessel that entered service in 2019. She follows the naming of , China's first polar research vessel.
History
The 5 million euro design contract for China's first domestically-built polar research vessel was signed in 2012 with the Finnish engineering company
Aker Arctic, though construction did not begin until December 2016.
She was built at
Jiangnan Shipyard.
''Xue Long 2'' now in service both as a supply vessel for China's research facilities in the Arctic and Antarctic regions and as a research vessel, with capabilities for geological and biological experimentation and surveying.
Design
''Xue Long 2'' measures long, with a beam of and a draft of at full load.
She has a displacement of 14,300
tonnes.
She has a diesel-electric propulsion system, with two
8-cylinder and two
12-cylinder
A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines.
The fir ...
engines, both
Wärtsilä 32-series designs,
powering two 7.5
MW Azipod propulsion units that give her a speed of up to in open water and when breaking ice.
Her ice class is
Polar Class 3
Polar Class (PC) refers to the ice class assigned to a ship by a classification society based on the ''Unified Requirements for Polar Class Ships'' developed by the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS). Seven Polar Clas ...
and she is able to break ice up to thick while traveling either ahead or astern.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xue Long 2
Icebreakers of China
Research vessels of China
2018 ships