China reveals details of a newly designed heavy icebreaker

The ship will be a larger and more capable version of its predecessor, the Xue Long 2.

As part of China’s International Maritime Conference and Exhibition in Shanghai last week, China’s Shipbuilding Industry Corporation presented a model and technical specifications for a massive conventionally-powered icebreaker. With a displacement of 26,000 tons and the ability to break through ice three meters-thick continuously at two knots, the Polar Class 2 vessel comes close to Russia’s latest nuclear-powered Arktika (Project 22220) icebreakers in terms of size and ice-breaking capability. China thus far operates two icebreaking research vessels.