Fincantieri subsidiary Vard has won its largest single-vessel order in the company’s history in a contract worth nearly €700 million, and says it’s also the largest ever awarded to a Norwegian shipbuilder.

The vessel, project-named RV11000, will be built for US-based marine research organisation Inkfish, which will send it out on operations at depths of up to 11,000 metres to support deep-ocean research including seabed mapping, coring and sampling, submarine operations and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployment.