The RV Sonne will be retired at the end of August 2014 and replaced by a new vessel named SONNE.
The replacement ship is being built by Meyer Werft in Papenburg and is owned by German Ministry of Research. The vessel will be used for multidiscipline research by the universities, which include the University of Bremen/Hamburg, IOW Rostock, BGR Hannover, IFM Geomar Kiel and several others.
The name giving ceremony is due to take place on 16th of June 2014 in Warnemuende, Germany and the vessel will be available for her first scientific cruise in the beginning of December 2014. The first cruise will be a transit cruise across the Atlantic with research mainly on biodiversity.
Some details of the vessel can be found: here
Source: Barbara Tanner