New Zealand send auxiliary ship HMNZS Aotearoa to Antarctica.

According to information published by the New Zealand Ministry of Defense on February 4, 2022, the auxiliary ship HMNZS Aotearoa has now sailed from Lyttelton and is heading south to support Antarctic environmental and scientific programs.
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Auxiliary ship HMNZS Aotearoa (Picture source: U.S. DoD)

As well as being Aotearoa’s first trip to Antarctica, it will be the first time in more than 50 years that a Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) ship will be conducting an Antarctic resupply of McMurdo Station and Scott Base.

With the construction of HMNZS Aotearoa, the NZDF now has a purpose-built, polar-class sustainment vessel specifically able to operate deep into the Southern Ocean and Ross Sea with an ice strengthened hull and upper deck trace heating.

For the RNZN Maritime Component Commander, Commodore Garin Golding, Aotearoa’s maiden sailing to Antarctica has been long-awaited.

HMNZS Aotearoa, formerly the Maritime Sustainment Capability project, is an auxiliary ship of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Builder Hyundai Heavy Industries delivered the ship to the Navy in June 2020, and she was commissioned into service on 29 July 2020.

The 26,000-tonne (26,000-long-ton) ship will provide marine diesel oil and aviation fuel. It stores food and ammunition in 20-foot (6.1 m) containers. Aotearoa has a Kelvin Hughes Integrated Naval Bridge System and is equipped with Farsounder-1000 sonar.

For navigation radar sensors it uses SharpEye S and X-Band with an S-Band SharpEye sensor optimised for helicopter approach and control. It is armed with a Phalanx CIWS and two Mini Typhoon mounts and has a flight deck and hangar for helicopter operations.