Ice navigation vessel

Ice navigation vessel or Ice-strengthened vessel is a class of ships specially prepared for independent ice navigation in the waters of the polar seas and for following icebreakers in especially difficult ice conditions. Various registration authorities assign ice classes to vessels based on their technical characteristics. Due to this, ice navigation vessels are usually referred to as ice-class vessels without indicating which class they belong to, but indicating the type of vessel (e.g. ice-class tanker, ice-class cargo ship etc).