Svalbard icebreaker captain calls for two more ships

Norway should have at least two more icebreakers, the captain of the coastguard ship Svalbard told the magazine Forsvarets forum in a report published on Saturday 14 November. The magazine asked the defence minister, Tore O. Sandvik, about the armed forces' icebreaker capacity. He pointed to burden sharing within NATO and to the chief of defence's military advice, which did not recommend more icebreakers.

That advice, on a page of the armed forces' website updated on 6 June 2023, said the coastguard has vessels that must be replaced in the coming decade. The number of vessels it recommended rested on operating and lifetime costs and on the most demanding missions in Norwegian waters being carried out together with allies. It also weighed the need for continuous missions across the whole range of conflict to protect Norwegian interests in the High North.

The Svalbard is the coastguard's only icebreaker and entered service in 2002, the armed forces said on their website. Norway has two icebreakers, the Svalbard and the research vessel Kronprins Haakon, the armed forces' materiel agency said on 1 April 2026. The ship had been at the Westcon shipyard in Florø since October 2025 for new communication and navigation systems, among them an ice radar, as part of keeping it in operation.

Geir Martin Leinebø, a lieutenant commander who has captained the ship since 2017, told the magazine that Norway is on a level with South Africa, with one icebreaker in its armed forces. He said the Svalbard makes its way well through ice despite its low weight and limited engine power, but that it has passed 25 years and has a limited lifetime.

The coastguard's new Jan Mayen class ships are large and effective but are not icebreakers, Leinebø said. They have polar class 6, against polar class 3 for the Svalbard; polar class 1 is the highest of the seven classes. Leinebø said new icebreakers should preferably be polar class 2, which he said a ship needs to operate around Svalbard all year, and that Norway should upgrade while its crews still have the experience.

Russia has the largest icebreaker fleet in the world, 42 ships. The crew of the Svalbard studies ice charts and follows the channels opened by Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers to get as far north as possible.

Coverage: Forsvarets forum