The Royal Norwegian Navy offshore patrol vessel KV Svalbard was constructed by Langsten AG at Tangen Verft shipyard in Kragerø and launched on February 17, 2001. She was christened December 15 in Tomrefjord with Minister of Defence Kristin Krohn Devold as godmother, and delivered to the Kystvakt on January 18, 2002. She entered service mid-2002 and is homeported in Sortland . Her primary operating area is in the Arctic waters north of Norway, the Barents Sea and around the Svalbard islands.

Svalbard is the largest ship in Norway's military armed forces, designed to supplement the 3 other helicopter carrying ships of the Norwegian Coastguard - the Nordkapp-class patrol vessels . She is NBC-protected with constant overpressure, and is capable of icebreaking or towing up to 100,000 tons.

General Characteristics

• Missions:
  • fishery inspection
  • enforcement of sovereignty
  • search and rescue
  • environmental protection
  • research and expedition support
• Displacement: 6500 tons
• Length: 103.7 meters overall, 89.0 meters waterline
• Beam: 19.1 meters
• Height: 8.3 meters
• Draft 6.5 meters
• Power: four 3390 kilowatt BRG-8 diesel generators
• Propulsion: two five-megawatt Azipod electric motors
• Aircraft: capacity for two helicopters; one Lynx carried initially
• Cost: NKr575 million (US$64 million)