Feature 3 | ICE CLASS VESSELS
New generation ice breakers set to service Artic offshore industry
Russia has taken positive measures to modernise and extend its icebreaker capacity. Te turning point was the commissioning in 2007 of the long-delayed nuclear icebreaker, 50 Let Pobedy (50 Years of Victory). Two diesel-electric icebreakers have followed from the same domestic source, Baltiyskiy Zavod. David Tinsley reports.
into service, originally envisaged from 2015 onwards. In addition, further commitments to diesel-electric newbuilds are in prospect. Fleet strategy is closely allied with
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the fundamental, long-term economic importance attached by Russia to vast hydrocarbon and mineral reserves in its most environmentally inhospitable regions. While the rise in commercial shipping activity generated by Russian overseas trade through the Baltic and the country’s Arctic waters is primarily energy-related, existing Arctic metallurgical and other northernmost industrial endeavours and the associated communities, generate significant traffic demand. Attention is also focused on the potential of Russia’s Northern Sea Route to serve as a shorter conduit for traffic between Europe and the Far East. During 2009, winter shipping in the
Gulf of Finland benefited from two new Russian diesel-electric icebreakers, the 10,000tonnes displacement sisters Moskva and Sankt-Petersburg. Contracted from Baltiyskiy Zavod by the Russian state-owned company Rosmorport, the design employed confers multifunctional qualities, whereby the key task of providing icebreaking escort to large tankers is complemented by rescue and salvage capabilities. A key role, permeating the design parameters and performance criteria, is that of supporting tanker traffic serving the eastern Baltic port of Primorsk. Moskva had the distinction of being the
first icebreaker powered by a diesel-electric plant to have been built in Russia for 34 years. During the intervening period, all Russia’s non-nuclear icebreakers were sourced from abroad, mainly from Finnish yards. Te entry into service of 50 Let Pobedy has
been a boon to Russia’s means of ensuring year-round navigation in its western Arctic
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echnical work has been initiated on a programme aimed at bringing a new generation of nuclear icebreakers
Russia’s 50 Let Pobedy, the world’s most powerful nuclear icebreaker.
region, while providing the scope for duty throughout the Northern Sea Route. Te vessel is equipped with a pair of 75,000shp steam turbogenerators feeding power to three fixed pitch propellers. Design work implemented on a new
multipurpose nuclear icebreaker class has been shaped by the requirement to support convoys and render individual vessel assistance in the Russian Arctic seaways, with the added capability for operating in relatively shallow areas of the Yenisey River and Gulf of Ob. Design projects undertaken by Russian institutes have included a 110MW nuclear icebreaker that could potentially facilitate complete transits of the Northern Sea Route, from Europe and northwestern Russia into the Pacific, by tankers of up to 150,000dwt. Meanwhile, Russia’s planned new 25MW
diesel-electric polar icebreaker is the first project in which Aker Arctic’s Hybrid DAS system has been nominated as the propulsion solution. It has been determined that a hybrid arrangement employing a centreline, fixed pitch propeller, flanked by a pair of Azipod azimuth podded propulsors, incorporating fixed-pitch propellers, would best suit operational power needs and the requisite flexibility in Arctic conditions. Te Hybrid
DAS concept has been patented by the Finnish technology specialist. More than a decade on from the unveiling
of the innovative, oblique icebreaker concept, the unique vessel design could find first form as a consequence of a Russo-Finnish agreement. Te memorandum of cooperation signed by Sovcomflot and Rosmorport with Aker Arctic Technology, STX Finland and Southeast Trading reflects Russian aims of modernising and strengthening its fleet of vessels dedicated to support operations such as ice escort, ship towage, search and rescue, and spill control. It has opened the way to a pilot project to design and construct a spill combat and salvage icebreaker, using the oblique icebreaker as the basis for the technical project. Te intention is to deploy the envisaged
vessel, which has yet to be ordered, in the Gulf of Finland. However, the parties have expressed optimism as to the longer-term potential for applying the concept to a larger programme of icebreaking special-purpose vessels serving Russian terminals and fairways in the Baltic, Barents Sea and Sea of Okhotsk. Conceived by Aker Arctic’s predecessor, Masa Arctic Research Centre(MARC), as an
The Naval Architect January 2011
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