Kongsberg systems for new NERC research vessel
Artist’s impression of RRS Discovery, the Natural Environment Research Council’s new £75m oceanographic research vessel.
The UK Natural Environment Research Council’s (NERC) new £75m research ship, RRS Discovery, currently under construction by the Spanish shipyard CNP Freire in Vigo, is to be equipped with a comprehensive integrated systems assembly from Kongsberg Maritime.
The assembly, which includes an integrated navigation system in addition to dynamic positioning and CCTV equipment, will incorporate Kongsberg EM122 deepwater and EM710 medium-water multibeam units together with a single-beam EA600 echosounder and for geophysical applications, an SBP120 sub-bottom profiler. A Simrad EK60 scientific multi-frequency echosounder for fishery research is also to be provided.
Scheduled for completion in the summer of 2013, the 100m RRS Discovery will replace a vessel of the same name which has been carrying out research ventures under the auspices of NERC since the early 1960s. It will be operated by the Council’s National Marine Facilities Division based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
Meanwhile, Kongsberg says it has supplied a comparable systems package for another research vessel also under construction by CNP Freire for delivery to the University of Qatar. The Norwegian company is also providing a suite of acoustic systems for Sikuliaq, a new icebreaker to be operated by the University of Alaska on behalf of the US National Science Foundation.
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