Project 22220 icebreaker
The first ship, ("Арктика" – Arctic), was laid down in November 2013 and is expected to enter service in 2019. Launched on 16 June 2016, the ship will be the world's largest and the most powerful icebreaker surpassing the "50 Let Pobedy".
The second ship of this class, "Sibir" – ("Сибирь" – Siberia), was laid down on 26 May 2015 at Baltic Shipyard. On 1 July 2016, the hull of "Sibir", one third of the ship and weighing 3,500 t, was shifted to the place of the launched "Arktika" icebreaker, where construction will be completed. The shift made place for the start of the construction of the hull of the icebreaker "Ural" – ("Урал" – Ural). Construction of the Ural started on 25 July 2016.
HMCS Micmac (R10)
However the selection of the Halifax yard also had several advantages. While Halifax Shipyards had not produced a large number of ships, it had produced some advanced and successful vessels. Two of its 1920 refrigerated freighters, SS "Canadian Cruiser" and were very large by Canadian standards, and remained the largest Canadian steel ships built until the end of the war. The icebreaker built by the yard, CGS "N.B. McLean" was a powerful and long-serving ship as well as one of the largest icebreakers in the word when constructed. The Halifax yard also benefited from the proximity of naval staff at the RCN's Halifax Naval Dockyard adjoining just to the south of the Halifax Shipyard. Finally, an important consideration for the wartime operation of the crucial convoy port of Halifax was the destroyer program's retention of a skilled workforce which helped stabilize the repair capacity of the port. Demand for skilled shipyard works soared in the winter but fell off in the summer causing many workers to leave. The destroyer program kept a large year round workforce available that could be switch from repair to new ship construction as needed.,