UK Orders New Icebreaker.

[pikaia]

"UK science is to get one of the biggest, most capable polar research vessels in the world.

The £200m investment in an icebreaker is to be announced by Chancellor George Osborne in a speech on Friday.

The ship is likely to be 130m long, and sport a helipad, cranes, onboard labs, and have the ability to deploy subs and other ocean-survey and sampling gear."



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-27129690

[werther]

The Chancellor may see this as an investment in science. In my suspicious mind I see it more as an investment in exploration.
Since the pic shows Antarctic type icebergs, it is probably meant to enhance British presence in the disputed territorial claims over there.

[idunno]

IIRC, Madamn Thatcher's plan to decommission the UK's sole icebreaker in the early '80s was taken by the Argentinian junta as a signal that the UK was no longer interested in the Falklands and South Georgia, which may have helped to provoke the subsequent invasion.

[Jim Hunt]

IIRC, Madamn Thatcher's plan to decommission the UK's sole icebreaker in the early '80s was taken by the Argentinian junta as a signal that the UK was no longer interested in the Falklands and South Georgia, which may have helped to provoke the subsequent invasion.

I suspect the UK is in fact interested in the Falklands and South Georgia. From The Economist:

"Oil and gas in the Falklands"

and HMS Protector is already in the South Atlantic:

http://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/The-Fleet/Ships/Patrol-and-Minehunters/Ice-Patrol-and-Survey-Ships/HMS-Protector

The Ice Patrol Ship is the embodiment of the Royal Navy’s global reach, operational flexibility and the Service’s ability to sustain operations wherever and whenever that presence is required.

I also suspect you are thinking of HMS Endurance: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Endurance_%281967%29

Similarly an "ice patrol ship" rather than an "icebreaker" per se.