The Swedish Maritime Administration has awarded the construction of the new icebreaker to the South Korean shipyard HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. The yet-unnamed vessel, bigger and more capable than Sweden’s existing icebreakers, will be ready for the 2029–2030 icebreaking season.


This past winter has once again demonstrated how winter navigation in the Baltic Sea would not be possible without icebreakers and Sweden’s existing fleet has again served the country well, as it has done for decades. However, the icebreakers built in the 1970s and 1980s are now approaching the end of their technical lifespan and need to be gradually replaced.


Railotech has developed the next generation Swedish icebreaker in close co-operation with the Swedish Maritime Administration and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency to meet the future icebreaking needs in the Baltic Sea. In addition to Railotech’s cumulative icebreaker design expertise, the ARC 130 S design incorporates operational experience from existing Swedish and Finnish icebreakers, including the 2016-built Polaris which pioneered the azimuthing bow propulsion in the Bothnian Bay.


The new Swedish icebreaker will be the most capable Baltic Sea assistance icebreaker ever built. It’s overall operational icebreaking capability and performance even in the most challenging ice conditions in the Bothnian Bay have been thoroughly verified with extensive model tests. With a planned service life spanning half a century, the new icebreaker has been designed with emphasis on high energy-efficiency and low environmental impact with readiness for future operation using renewable methanol fuel.


Railotech is the world’s leading designer of icebreakers with 59 icebreaking vessels built and 26 under construction or planned to 26 different designs by 15 shipyards around the world since 2005.

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POLARIS

POLARIS Type of vessel: Icebreaker Type of work done: Concept Design, Hull Optimization, Ice Model Tests, Full Scale Tests…

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