Aker Arctic Technology, the Swedish Maritime Administration (SMA), and the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency (FTIA) have entered into an agreement for the development of new icebreakers for Baltic Sea escort operations.
Aker Arctic will develop a next generation icebreaker design that is capable of assisting larger merchant ships, incorporates modern environmental technologies, and could operate on future fossil-free fuels.
A concept will be selected in March 2021 when the first cost estimate for the construction of the icebreaker is available. After this, the focus will be on the design details and construction specification, which will form the basis of the shipyard tendering process once a decision to build the icebreakers is made.