On April 25, Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding, a subsidiary of China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), officially started the construction of a 2,000-ton marine scientific research and teaching support vessel. The vessel is scheduled to be launched at the end of this year and delivered in May 2025.
Designed by China Ship Design & Research Center, the vessel has an overall length of 82 meters, a beam of 15 meters. The vessel features a maximum speed of 15 knots, holding capacity of 35 days and can accommodate 45 crew.
The vessel is capable of all-weather operation, integrating the functions of marine geology, marine chemistry, marine biology, physical oceanography, undersea equipment deployment and recovery, engineering geology and other scientific research and investigation.
The vessel is equipped with an operational underwater remote-controlled robot (ROV) and several containerized onboard laboratories, which can be adapted to diversified marine scientific research tasks. Meanwhile, it adopts the latest intelligent ship design, with functions such as autonomous navigation in open water, assisted berthing, remote monitoring and remote control, ship energy efficiency monitoring and fault diagnosis.
In addition, it adopts localized pods and diesel generator/battery hybrid power system, which is more energy-saving and environmentally friendly.
Based on the human-oriented design concept, the vessel has outstanding performance in terms of operability, comfort, convenience and maintainability.
Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Company is building the vessel for Shanghai-based Tongji University. After completion, the vessel will become the leading ocean-level comprehensive scientific research platform with scientific investigation and engineering support capabilities in the East China Sea and even the whole country.
