On 25 March 2015 the hull of the Murmansk icebreaker, project 21900M, was solemnly launched at the Arctech Helsinki Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland.

The solemn ceremony was attended by Head of Rosmorrechflot Alexander Davydenko, FSUE “Rosmorport” General Director Andrey Tarasenko and Murmansk Region Governor Marina Kovtun.

The vessel is one of the three linear icebreakers with the power of about 16 MWt, which are to be commissioned in 2015-2016, in accordance with the Sea Transport section of the federal target program “Development of the Transport System of Russia (2010-2020)”.

Launching of a vessel is one of the vessel construction stages, which is followed by outfitting works performed in water, as well as mooring, sea and ice trials. After all trials and certifications the icebreaker will be commissioned approximately in August 2015.

The vessel can break ice up to 1.5 metres thick. Its main purpose is escorting large tonnage vessels, tugging, rendering assistance to vessels and transporting useful cargoes. An icebreaker of project 21900M is a two-deck vessel with an unlimited sailing range, which has two orbit-roll steerable propellers together with a steering device, and is equipped with a helipad.

Technical characteristics of the vessel: length — 119.8 metres; breadth — 27.5 metres; draught — 8.5 metres; speed in fresh water— 17 knots.

The new diesel icebreaker will be used in the FSUE “Rosmorport” North-Western  Basin Branch.

Replenishment of the icebreaking fleet by means of new vessel construction is a priority task for provision of year-round accessibility of the Russian Seaport, and also for provision of navigation safety, high level of cargo operations and ecological safety.

Earlier, on 29 April 2014, a ceremony of launching the first icebreaker of the series called Vladivostok was held at the Vyborg Shipyard.