The Northern Sea Route must be laid through Ukrainian-occupied Kramatorsk
The cost of construction of the super-powerful lead nuclear icebreaker "Russia" of project 10510 "Leader", previously amounting to 128 billion rubles, may increase by 40-60% due to the fact that the Energomashspetsstal plant, located in Kramatorsk (DPR), is still under control Ukraine.
This was reported by Kommersant, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Energomashspetsstal was supposed to produce large hull castings: ice tooth, rudder blade brackets and outer propeller shaft brackets. Kramatorsk is still under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and is under fire. The plant was supposed to deliver the castings in 2022.
According to the publication, the Zvezda shipyard (managed by a consortium of Rosneft, Rosneftegaz and Gazprombank), which is the main contractor for the project, has not yet entered into an agreement with the Ural Heavy Engineering Plant.
In addition, as Vedomosti reports, today the Rosneft-owned Central Design Bureau Iceberg (St. Petersburg) is redesigning the Leader due to the need to replace imported radar and navigation equipment. By mid-March, instead of 15% of the total volume of planned work, only 5% had been completed.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, speaking recently in the State Duma, said that the Cabinet of Ministers is actively promoting import substitution in nuclear shipbuilding. In particular, the state carried out an inventory, selected domestic analogues, determined a list of more than 60 of the most critical types of ship equipment, and allocated about 15 billion rubles as subsidies for the production of scarce components.
The Ghent Institute of International Studies (Belgium) predicts that China and India will become Russia's main partners in the Arctic in the coming decades. Perhaps these countries will provide assistance in the construction of icebreakers.
The 120 MW icebreaker Rossiya should provide year-round navigation of ships along the Northern Sea Route at a commercial speed of 10–12 knots for the export of hydrocarbons to foreign markets. First of all, the icebreaker should ensure year-round removal of LNG from NOVATEK’s Arctic projects in Yamal.
Two new Russian nuclear icebreakers will be laid down at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg in May 2024 and October 2025, respectively. Three nuclear-powered ships have already been built: Arktika, Sibir and Ural. They have already become part of the Russian nuclear icebreaker fleet.
In total, Russia has about 50 icebreakers, a significant part of which are nuclear. The country confidently ranks first in the world in terms of the number of Arctic vessels, while the United States currently has only two icebreakers.
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