The fleet of icebreakers operating on the Northern Sea Route should number 17 units by 2030 and 22 units by 2035
The contracts for construction of the 5th and the 6th icebreakers of Project 22220 may be signed in December 2022, Vyacheslav Ruksha, Deputy General Director of Rosatom - Director of the Northern Sea Route Directorate, said at the plenary session of the XII International Forum “Arctic: Today and the Future”.
“They are to be contracted in December”, he said when answering the question of journalists on signing of the contracts for construction of the 5th and the 6th serial icebreakers.
Multipurpose nuclear-powered icebreakers of Project 22220 ships are the world’s largest and most powerful icebreaking ships. Their key task is to ensure year-round navigation in the western Arctic. Icebreakers of 22220 design will form the basis of Russia’s civil icebreaking fleet in the near time.
Key particulars of Project 22220: LOA - 173.3 m (160 m, DWL), beam - 34 m (33 m, DWL), depth – 15.2 m; height - 52 m; draft (DWL) - 10.5 m; minimum draft – 9.2 m, full displacement – 33,540 tonnes; maximum icebreaking capability - 2.8-meter-thick ice (at full capacity and speed of 1.5-2 knots); designated service life - 40 years, crew - 53.
Icebreakers of Project 22220 are intended for escorting of ships including ships of large capacity, year-round escorting of convoys in the western Arctic, assistance to ships in shallow areas of the Yenisei estuary and the Gulf of Ob, towing of ships and floating facilities in ice-covered and ice-free waters; participation in rescue operations in ice-covered and ice-free waters. The icebreakers are built to RS class.
As Vyacheslav Ruksha said earlier, the fleet of icebreakers operating on the Northern Sea Route should number 17 units by 2030 and 22 units by 2035. That number of icebreakers is needed to ensure cargo traffic of 150 and 220 million tonnes respectively.
In accordance with Presidential Decree of 2018, the State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM performs the functions of a single infrastructure operator for the development of the Northern Sea Route. The company operates the world’s only fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers.
Under the contract with FSUE Atomflot, Baltiysky Zavod is currently building two icebreakers of Project 22220 (Yakutia and Chukotka). The lead icebreaker in the series, Arktika, and two serial icebreakers, Sibir and Ural, have already been put into operation. Besides, Shipbuilding Complex “Zvezda” (Bolshoy Kamen, Primorsky Territory) is building a nuclear-powered icebreaker of Leader type.
The Northern Sea Route is a single transport system in the Russian Arctic sector. It stretches along the northern coasts of Russia across the seas of the Arctic Ocean (Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi seas). The route links the European ports of Russia with the mouths of navigable rivers in Siberia and the Far East. In August 2022, a plan for the development of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) until 2035 was approved. The plan includes over 150 activities with total financing nearing RUB 1.8 trillion. A separate section of the plan is focused on creation of a fleet of icebreakers including the lead icebreaker of Leader design as well as the development of shipbuilding and ship repair facilities in the Arctic.
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Related links:
NSR fleet of icebreakers to number 17 units by 2030 and 22 units by 2035 – Vyacheslav Ruksha >>>>
Nuclear-powered icebreaker Ural of Project 22220 commenced operation in the Kara Sea >>>>