An exclusive look at Australia’s maritime marvel

FIRST ON 7: Australian scientists are about to take delivery of a supership, with a price tag to match.

It is equipped with laboratories and a powerful radar system that will give us some of the most accurate weather forecasts in the world.

Deep inside a high-security Singapore dockyard, the finishing touches are being placed on a very special ship.

Cameras are banned, but 7News was granted exclusive access to a vessel unlike any other in the Australian fleet.

The Investigator took two years to make, at a cost of $120 million.

It might look like other ships, but to our top scientists it is an object of desire, allowing them to boldly go to where they have never been before.

"It provides us with an opportunity to answer questions that we've not been answer," the CSIRO's Toni Moate said.

"We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the surface of the ocean so in that way it is the water Star Trek."

Its two-tonne weather radar can see 20 kilometres into the sky, and can explore weather systems from high over the tropical oceans to the depths of Antarctic seas.

It will make our weather predictions more accurate, and world class.

"How can we predict rainfall what does that look like where do we think there might be cyclones and it feeds into a lot of questions that might be important to Australians," Toni Moate said.

"It really does put Australia on the stage."

Its 15 laboratories will also study marine life, map the sea floor and test the impact of pollution.

It is more than 90 metres long and 18 metres wide, unlike ships of its size it is built to be extremely quiet so it does not disturb the environment it is there to study.

The Investigator is due in Hobart next month.