VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Most of the currently active diesel-electric icebreakers were built before 1986, mainly at overseas shipyards. Their physical and moral deterioration means they must be decommissioned within the next few years. This calls for urgent measures to build an icebreaking fleet of a new generation consisting of more effective vessels that meet modern requirements for reliability and safety of navigation for transport shipping in freezing seas.
In addition, the need to develop port facilities in the Gulf of Finland, including oil handling terminals for the first and second Baltic Transport Systems (BTS-1 and BTS-2), requires icebreaker assistance in the given region and provision for salvage and rescue operations. In this context, construction of two line diesel-electric icebreakers each amassing 16 MW for operations in the Baltic Sea was included in 2004 in the special federal programme Modernisation of Russia's Transport System (2002-2010).
To ensure the reliable and non-interrupted operation of sea transport in freezing seas it is very important to deliver new icebreakers on schedule to avoid an "icebreaker pause" when the decommissioning of existing icebreakers, even with extended service life and resources, runs ahead of the commissioning of new icebreakers.
At the request of the Federal Agency for Sea and Inland Water Transport Rosmorport held a tender to build icebreakers of a new project in 2004. It was won by Baltiisky Zavod, with which a contract to design and construct icebreakers was concluded in October 2004.
On May 19, 2005, the first icebreaker of the new project, the Moskva, was laid down. In November 2008, its construction was completed, and the vessel was handed over to the customer.
The main body of the second icebreaker, Sankt-Peterburg, was laid down on January 19, 2006. The ship hit the water on May 28, 2008, and its sea trials were completed in June 2009. A state commission gave high marks for their results.
Currently, based on the experience of designing and building the icebreakers Moskva and Sankt-Peterburg, blueprints for a diesel-electric icebreaker with a capacity of 25 MW (LK-25) have been made, vetted and prepared for implementation. The tentative period of construction of an icebreaker on Russian shipyards is three years.
