Horizon Arctic is designed for worldwide deep sea offshore operations such as anchor handing and towing services for oil rigs.

The vessel's twin shaft lines with controllable pitch propellers can be driven with a maximum power of 18,800 kW (25,200 hp) and, when used in boost mode together with the 1,200 kW (1,600 hp) drop-down azimuthing bow thruster, generate a bollard pull of 307 tonnes (338 short tons).

[7] In addition, Horizon Arctic has four 1,200 kW (1,600 hp) transverse thrusters, two in the bow and two in the stern, to enable dynamic positioning during offshore operations.

[9] An earlier ship built to the same design by Vard was delivered as Skandi Iceman for DOF ASA in 2013.

[11] Horizon Arctic was chartered by OceanGate to serve as its surface support vessel for its RMS Titanic survey expeditions in 2021[12] and again in 2022.