So during my visit to St petersburg i got to see some amazing things and some amazing ships and submarines, a big peak in my interest was the Admiralty ship yards.
These are the oldest ship yards in Russia and date back to 1721 and the time of peter the great, this yard has been responsible for the coming about of many different types of vessels from oil tankers to ice breakers submarines to heavy cruisers.
It was here that BALCOM 1 was launched we know them as the massive Kirov class cruisers but these yards played a key role throughout history even in the second world war despite being bombed and under siege they still operated.
Today the ship yard is building ice breakers and submarines and i got to see up close some of these new builds.
Now these will naturally be destined for the arctic regions but one is very special, the first and nearly completed ice breaker you see is the Viktor Chernomyrdin she is the most powerful diesel icebreaker in the world with a 480ton bollard pull, she is 147 meters long and 29 meters wide with a displacement of some 22,000tons she will be capable of smashing through up to 2 meters of ice.
This ship is over due and was meant to be delivered some time ago (2017 i believe) but she had a fire on board in November 2018 and also some other over runs which means her commissioning wont be now until late 2019 likely.
The second ice breaker is the biggest of them all this is Siberia A LK-60Ya class or project 2220 she was Launched last year she is powered by two RITM 200 nuclear reactors producing around 55mw each, she is slightly larger than the Viktor Chernomyrdin at 173 meters long 34 meters wide and displacing 34,500tons in full ballast this makes the largest ice breakers in the world (50 years of victory is 25,000 ton and slightly smaller)
And if you thought these were big well they have a plan to build a series even bigger the LK-110-Ya which will be some 200 meters long 50 meters wide and a full ballast of 55,500tons capable of year round navigation smashing through 5 meters of ice.
Next on the shopping list for many is Russian exports now we know one of their biggest export successes was vodka (lets face it no one qued up to buy their cars did they) but the Admiralty shipyards do cater for the export markets one such product is the project 877/636 kilo class of which some 8 countries operate the different types of Kilo with another 3 possible buyers (Venezuela Indonesia and Philippines).
While at the ship yard i did notice two boats being fitted out the one closest was defiantly brand new and of the Kilo class.
However my sharp eyes did wander off into the distance to notice something else something quite unique.
This is not a Kilo class submarine, this is in fact the last project 677 Lada class, the B-587 Velikiye Luki.
We know with the issues the submarines had the B-586 Khronstadt and B-587 Velikiye Luki are very heavily modified from the lead boat the B585 Saint Petersburg (which is currently serving in the Northern fleet).
As you can see there are obvious differences between the two, if you look on the sail you see fair water planes the only known varient of the Kilo to have these are the chinese copy the Yuan class.
The lada class boats were to replace the Kilo class but instead a re designed project 636.3 will replace the Lada's they were to build 12 boats but they have stopped at just 3 due to problems, these boats also incorporate AIP systems where the kilo currently does not (it may be on the cards)
What is also unique is that there is a sub class called the amur or project Amur 550-1850 each with different size armaments and house VLS tubes to date none have been built even though tenders have been sent to India and Morocco.
The B-587 Velikiye Luki will commission early next year and join her sister submarine the B586 Khronstadt in the Baltic fleet.
Building works are still going on and submarines are the main feature here at the moment, here we see the pressure hull sections of a project 636 boat awaiting completion it is unclear what boat this will be or who it is for.
In all the shipyard is very busy with current contracts which include fleet modernization and new build ships both for the Russian navy and foreign navies but also the civilian market this yard does construct tankers and cargo ships this last picture doesn't even show you half the site and i had to take it from the other side of the river on board Krasin, but i think that if you thought Russia was broke and dirt poor and couldn't afford to build a canoe then this may make you think again.
