had thus far cost over million and the ship was not expected to be ready until late 2013. In , it was disclosed that the ship was still awaiting the necessary repairs and that sea trials had been delayed by a year, with oppositors claiming the money spent —some million plus another million in contracting supplying vessels— could have been used to buy a new ship; a month later, it was announced that work regarding control panels was still pending. The Tandanor shipyard repaired the fire damage and also reconfigured the vessel to increase laboratory space from up to . This allows the ship to be used primarily as a research vessel in addition to its role of resupplying the southernmost Antarctic base Belgrano II. The diesel engines have been replaced by four new ones purchased from MAN in October 2011. The main radar of Irízar was also repaired in Argentina by CITEDEF. Work was initially estimated to be finished by November 2011, but it was not until April 2017 that the icebreaker was declared seaworthy again. On 4 July, Almirante Irízar sailed for open sea trials for the first time in ten years. After departing Buenos Aires, the vessel headed to a dry dock in the main base of Argentine Navy, Puerto Belgrano, where the icebreaker underwent tests and verifications prior to ice trials in the Antarctic and return to full service. In November 2017, the ship came back to Buenos Aires after successfully passing its "ice test", the last stage of its restoration work that left it ready for service again. It was confirmed that it will be present on the Antarctic 2018 campaign. References Further reading External links 1978 ships Falklands War naval ships of Argentina Hospital ships during the Falklands War Icebreakers of the Argentine Navy Maritime incidents in 2004 Maritime incidents in 2007 Maritime incidents in Argentina Ships built in Helsinki Ship fires Research vessels of Argentina