On December 19, Severnaya Verf Shipyard OJSC laid down the keel of MB-75, first serial tugboat of project 23120 designed by Spetssudoproekt CJSC (Saint-Petersburg), the shipbuilding company says.
The contract for construction of the series (lead vessel + two serial vessels) with ice class ARC4 based on the project 23120 for RF Defence Ministry was signed on June 29, 2012, by Severnaya Verf Shipyard OJSC and Federal Agency for Procurement of Armory and Specialized Equipment.
Vessels based on project 23120 are technically similar to supply vessels built by Severnaya Verf for European customers and vessels of projects 22390/22391, which are to make the core of Gazprom’s supply fleet deployed for Arctic shelf development.
The major difference of vessels based on project 23120 is their ice class - ARC4 – enabling them to sail in the Arctic.
Characteristics of the vessel: length max – about 95 m; width max – about 22 m; draught max – about 9 m; full displacement – about 10,000; cruising capacity – about 5,000 miles; endurance – about 60 days; crew – 27 persons.
The vessels is intended for loading, storage, transportation and unloading of dry cargo; tugging operations, providing help to crews of vessels in distress.
Navigation area: unlimited independent navigation in non-Arctic seas; independent summer-autumn navigation in the Barents Sea; winter-spring navigation in the Barents Sea with icebreaking assistance.
Russian Gov’t picked Severnaya Verf Shipyard as the main contractor for the frigate and corvette class ships (Project 22350, Project 2038/20385). The company was included in the register of the Federal Service for Defense Contracts (Rosoboronzakaz) of sole suppliers of Russian weapons and military equipment and is the sole contractor for communications ships of Project 18280.
The Shipyard’s backlog of orders to be completed and delivered to RF Navy by 2020 includes 6 frigates of project 22350, 6 corvettes of projects 20380 and 20385, 3 combat logistics ships with high ice class ARC4 based on project 23120, as well as two communications vessels of project 18280.
The keel of the lead vessel was laid down on November 14, 2012.