She was previously crewed by the Belgian Naval Component as RV Belgica and is in active service.

[1] Borys Aleksandrov has a range of 20,000 nautical miles (37,000 km; 23,000 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).

[4] She was named after the RV Belgica, a ship used by Adrien de Gerlache in the Belgian Antarctic Expedition (1897–99).

Belgica was operated by the Management Unit of North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM) and crewed by the Belgian Naval Component.

[5] In 2013 mechanical problems caused the aging vessel to be taken out of service for four weeks, which prompted the Belgian government to plan her replacement by 2017.