The support fleet of Russian Navy's Northern Fleet will be expanded with three newbuilds in 2016, including two 23040-series salvage ships and one multipurpose SAR module boat of project 23370, the Navy's press service said.
The ships are designed for diving support and surface and underwater salvage operations, including salvage of Navy's submarines. The 23040 project vessels have capabilities to perform diving operations at depths of 60 meters at seas with wind force up to 8-12 mph, to carry out search and underwater survey of stricken ships using ROVs and a towed sonar.
The series boat also has firefighting capabilities to extinguish fires on ships, floating and shore based facilities with a height up to 30 meters, to pump water from the vessel and to supply power. The boat has a steel ice-class hull, equipped with thrusters, making it more maneuverable, and features comfortable accommodations for the crew and a diving team. The boat has diving equipment, a decompression chamber and other appliances.
The multifunctional modular boat of project 23370 can be utilized both as a diving support, SAR ship, and oil skimmer, firefighting and ecological ship. The vessel is able to operate in harbours and littoral zones. The boat is equipped with a hydraulic 5-tonne crane with a mechanical winch of capacity up to 250 kg for handling and moving equipment, on deck cargo.
State contract for the construction of 16 offshore search and salvage boats of project 23040 for the Russian Ministry of Defense was signed late March 2013 with ZNT Shipyard based in Nizhny Novgorod.