Just in May this year, our Xuelong II completed the 37th Antarctic expedition and successfully returned to the Shanghai base dock, which brought the mission to a successful conclusion.
Do not underestimate this Xuelong II, its contribution is very large, no less than the existence of the aircraft carrier, its cost reached nearly 200 million US dollars, it can be said that invisibly, its value will be brought out, for China's scientific expedition to make great contributions, what is the Xuelong II? Why does China insist on building a domestic icebreaker?
Although Xuelong-2 is China's fourth polar research ship, it is the first polar scientific research ship independently built by China, successfully delivered in 2019, with a length of 122.5 meters, a width of 22.3 meters, a displacement of 13,990 tons, it can last 20,000 nautical miles, and the self-sustaining force can reach 60 days.
It is not only the first one built in China, but also the world's first polar scientific research icebreaker that adopts bow and stern two-way icebreaking technology, which can continuously break the ice in the 1.5-meter-thick ice environment, and the basic design is completed by foreign countries, and the detailed design and construction design plus construction process are optimized at home.
Finally built this can meet the requirements of the unlimited navigation area, with global navigation capabilities, but also in the polar situation to achieve 360 degrees of free rotation, it can be said that this is a polar scientific research icebreaker that fully has the international advanced level, and a lot of advanced technology is used on the ship.
Just like intelligence, Xuelong 2 is an intelligent ship, in the polar expedition, can achieve intelligent operation of ships and scientific expeditions and auxiliary decision-making, at the same time, on the ship, there is a Leonardo AW169 helicopter, in the unexpected situation can be emergency support.
Filling the gap in The field of major equipment in China's polar scientific expeditions at the same time, but also let our country into the era of "double dragon exploration", and the most important task of the icebreaker, as its name, is used to break the ice, whether it is rivers, oceans, harbors and other places, in the cold weather, it will freeze, which requires the help of the icebreaker to open up the channel, but the Xuelong II is not a simple icebreaker, its significance is for the polar scientific expedition, and the polar environment is a multi-ice situation, so the icebreaker, The polar research ship of two-in-one scientific research is very meaningful.
From these introductions, we can know what Xuelong II is doing, so why does China have to build it independently when it already has a polar research vessel?
Here is to say, how much significance the Antarctic scientific expedition has, to know that Antarctica is the last place on the earth with rich resources, but has not been developed, want to get antarctic resources, but also has a management treaty, the treaty clearly stated, want to obtain antarctic development resources, that is need to be based on the degree of contribution of the world to the Antarctic scientific expedition to decide, so Antarctica has become one of the most competitive places in the world, so it is very important for our country to take root in Antarctica.
To know that now the most precious is the resources, only in the Antarctic scientific expedition has the right to speak, then first of all we have to make a huge contribution to the Antarctic scientific expedition, if China does not have its own research and development of advanced scientific expedition icebreaker, then in the polar scientific expedition, will become very passive, with the support of their own technology, can rest assured not to be monopolized by other countries' technology, so that we can calmly carry out scientific research.
The Xuelong No. 2 has become a major synonym for China's polar scientific expeditions, which means that China has made great strides in the scientific expedition.
Although the Xuelong is not independently developed, but China has also upgraded it, added our own technology, coupled with the inclusion of the Xuelong II, now our "Double Dragon Pole Exploration" era has come, in the case of the Xuelong and Xuelong II double-ship operation mode, the two are matched with each other, so that China's support capabilities at the polar expedition site have made a big breakthrough, which means that the efficiency of China's polar scientific expeditions in the polar expedition has been greatly improved.
Therefore, even if we need to spend hundreds of millions of yuan to build, we must also build our own domestic icebreaker, only if we have it, we will not be restricted, and from the contribution made by Xuelong II to the present, we know that the funds invested are very worthwhile, Xuelong II has shown its important position in the scientific expedition, it can be said that she has perfectly reflected her value.
And in the future, we will have not only one self-built icebreaker, but also more, even nuclear-powered polar research icebreakers.