Icebreaker Almirante Irizar expected in Puerto Belgrano for high seas trials

Wednesday, July 5th 2017 - 15:28 UTC

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The emblematic Argentine navy icebreaker Almirante Irizar, responsible for the country's Antarctic effort left Buenos Aires on Tuesday for high sea trials. The Atlantic incursion was its first in ten years, since in 2007 the icebreaker suffered a major fire that almost destroyed the vessel, originally built in Finland. Read full article

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Kanye
“ ... following a seven years odyssey of insufficient funds, unending red tape and corruption allegations emerging from soaring over costs”

Emblematic of the CFK reign.

Now that Macri is President, it is miraculously finished and puts to sea.
Jul 05th, 2017 - 11:40 pm - Link - Report abuse +3
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Marti Llazo
To the US$26 million or so spent during those ten years (during which time a new icebreaker could have been acquired more cheaply) we need to add ten years of annual supply costs (US$25 million or so in 2015 alone) to lease foreign shipping to send materials to Antarctica.

What is even funnier is that all that material was being sent to bases that are located in the British Antarctic Territory !
Jul 06th, 2017 - 12:19 am - Link - Report abuse +3
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Hektor
@Martillazo:

You are not correct in your assertions that an icebreaker could have been acquired cheaper. A used one that had to be rebuilt - maybe. The only problem with the Irizar is that it took 6 years to complete - maybe 3 years too long. Keep in mind that the plans and the order to rebuild the ship was given in 2010. It has been completely redone with the latest technology and it would be the largest icebreaker in the South Atlantic.

It cost ~ 150 million US dollars. A ship of that characteristics, new would have cost at least 400-500 million dollars. Icebreakers are extremely expensive. The Irizar cost Argentina built new, in Finland in the mid 1970's, something like 450 million dollars in today's money.

Hektor
Jul 06th, 2017 - 06:34 am - Link - Report abuse -1
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Marti Llazo
When we add the cost of the rebuilding of the ship to the amounts expended during the nearly 10 years it was unavailable, to contract substitute services such as Russian shipping, it would have been cheaper to buy a comparable icebreaker. The failure to install proper fire-smoke grade cabling is already known to the cognoscenti and poses high risks the next time a fire gets going aboard. And it remains to be seen if the rest of the renovation work was done satisfactorily, and whether it will ram a jetty on its way to open water.
Jul 06th, 2017 - 02:02 pm - Link - Report abuse +2
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Hektor
@Martillazo:

It is easier said than done. There are not that many icebreakers for sale and the ones for sale have to be completely redone. For example, the one Argentina was renting from Russia was never for sale. The Finnish shipyards that built the Irizar wanted an “arm and a leg” to rebuild the Irizar. They prepared the original plans for the rebuilding that had to be discarded because they were inadequate. This lead to one of the reasons of the delay.

You are right. We have to wait and see what happens with our efforts. The Argentine shipyards had to regain the knowledge lost. However, it was done in Argentina. We have to start some time.

There very few countries with the expertise to build icebreakers: Finland, US, Canada, Great Britain and probably Russia. Even Russia commissioned icebreakers from Finland.

It will cost Great Britain something like $600 million to build a polar ship (not an icebreaker) and no one says that they should have bought a used one. How much did it cost Great Britain to build the new aircraft carriers? Billions. It is costing the US one billion plus to build a new destroyers and at least 12 billion for each Gerard Ford class aircraft carriers. $150 million spent on the Irizar was a bargain and it will be the most sophisticated and largest icebreaker in the South Atlantic. Their fire suppression system is supposed to be “state of the art.”

Hektor
Jul 06th, 2017 - 03:42 pm - Link - Report abuse -1
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