Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard. Kohnen Station Kohnen Station was established in 2001 as logistical base for ice core drilling in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica, at Samoylov Station Samoylov Station is a Russian research station at lays within the Lena Delta close to the Laptev Sea. The station was set up as a logistic base for joint Russian-German permafrost studies by the Lena Delta Reserve (LDR) and the AWI. Ships Altogether there are six ships that belong to AWI. RV Polarstern The AWI flagship is Germany's research icebreaker RV Polarstern. The ship was commissioned in 1982. The double-hulled icebreaker is operational up to temperatures as low as −50 °C (−58 °F). Polarstern can break through sea ice of 1.5 m thickness at a speed of 5 knots, thicker ice must be broken by ramming. A possible but not probable follow-up flagship might be the research icebreaker Aurora Borealis. RV Heincke The vessel RV Heincke is a multifunctional and low-noise ship for research in ice-free waters, named after German zoologist and ichthyologist Friedrich Heincke . With a length of 54.6 m, a width of 12.5 m and a draft 4.16 m, the ship is categorized as "medium research vessel" within the German research fleet. The ship was put into operation in 1990, its building costs have been around 16 Millionen Euro. On the vessel, up to 12 scientists and 8 crew members can work for up to 30 passage days. This corresponds to an operating range of roughly 7500 nautical miles. The shipowner is Briese Schiffahrts GmbH & Co. KG from Leer, a city in East Frisia. RV Uthörn The research cutter RV Uthörn is named after the small island Uthörn next to Sylt in the North Sea. The vessel is regularly on research tours in German Bight, but is also used to supply the AWI branch Biologische Anstalt Helgoland mentioned above. Two scientists and four crew members can live and work on board for up to 180 days, but the vessel mainly used for day trips. Another operation purpose are short term cruises of a few hours for up to 25 students to demonstrate oceanographic and biological sampling methods. Being commissioned in 1982 RV Uthörn replaced a vessel with the same name which was built in 1947 and had a length of 24 m. The current vessel is powered by two V12 four-stroke Diesel engines manufactured by the company MWM GmbH from