New

[chrisg46]

The UK Government has announced that they are spending around

[ChasB46]

Statement by the Chancellor .. All to be operated until 2020 then decision to be made on Shackleton which is a chartered ship.

[Malim Sahib]

Wherever the report came from is well out of date. HMS Endurance has been out of service since 2008 and was replaced by HMS Protector in 2011, the new vessel carries no helicopters as she lacks a hanger.

[chrisg46]

Thanks, Jim! My comment was based upon BAS's website commentary on operational vessels!

Chas, I couldn't find any commitment to retaining both ships in the Chancellors speech (https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chancellor-of-the-exchequers-speech-on-science-in-cambridge), but this is what NERC said, according to the BBC:

There is sure to be some concern that the announcement of the new vessel will signal an imminent reduction in the fleet - one super ship to replace two ageing vessels.

But the Natural Environment Research Council (Nerc), which funds polar science in the UK, says this is not the current plan. The desire is to operate both the Clark Ross and the Shackleton until at least the end of the decade, it states.

A decision will then be taken on what to do with the Shackleton, which, unlike the Clark Ross, is not British-owned but leased from a Norwegian company. The first of five available one-year extensions to this bareboat charter arrangement comes into effect in August.

The combined effect of the speech and the NERC comments seems to be that they want to keep the 2 ships until 2020, but have the option of pulling the plug on Shackleton at shorter notice if they need to.

[Tuomas Romu]

I wonder who's designing that ship. 3 knots in 2 m ice is not child's play.

[ChasB46]

Chancellor speech at Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge .. quote .. " One of the final frontiers in the world where there is still much discovery to be done are the polar oceans.    Britain must continue to have a presence in these parts of the world. But our two current polar exploration ships are nearing the end of their life and need replacing.
    So I am delighted that we are investing in a new polar research ship carry cutting edge British technology to put British scientists at the forefront of research in both the Antarctic and the Arctic oceans. The easy choice would have been to not replace them. But that would have been a huge mistake for the long term. Britain must keep a presence in these parts of the world.So instead we