On Friday, June 25, the multi-purpose submarine "Novosibirsk" - the first serial submarine of the project 885" Yasen-M " - goes to sea for sea trials. On the sidelines of the International Naval Salon MVMS-2021, which is being held in St. Petersburg, Mikhail Budnichenko, General Director of Sevmash, told about this, TASS reports. At the shipyard itself, where this ship was built, they did not develop and comment on the hot news from the banks of the Neva, making it clear that there are such plans, but the date may change.
Whatever it was, for the crew and the delivery team of the Novosibirsk, this will be the first trip to the sea within the framework of the factory testing program. If there are no complications at this examination stage, state tests will follow in the fall - with rocket firing and torpedo launches. And at the end of 2021, TASS quotes the words of Mikhail Budnichenko, " it is planned to transfer the submarine to the fleet."
At this point, as they say, I want to knock on a piece of wood and wish good luck to everyone who is involved in the creation of a new ship: its designers from Malachite, developers and suppliers of equipment, shipbuilders of Sevmash, their subcontractor and, of course, the factory delivery team together with the crew.
Only one navigation, shortened in terms of time and limited in the North by ice conditions and polar night, for an extensive program of factory and state tests is very little. Especially when we have just witnessed similar tests of the Kazan submarine of the same project 885 "Yasen-M". This submarine was launched in March 2017, sea trials began in September 2018, stretched for two and a half years and ended only in the spring of this year - the acceptance certificate was approved by the commander-in-chief of the Navy on May 7, 2021.
Yes, armed with the latest K-561 "Kazan" with cruise missiles in vertical shafts and a large " assortment "of torpedoes, missiles and mines, which are used from torpedo tubes located on the sides of the submarine, and not in its bow tip, as is customary on most multi - purpose submarines, is the lead submarine of the fourth generation in the Ash series. The main one - because it was built according to a modernized project, as indicated by a special letter in its project "passport: 885 "Ash-M".
And if you call a spade a spade, it was laid and built already in the XXI century according to a new, much more modern, intelligent and complex project in comparison with the original project "Ash", which was based on the developments and capabilities of the mid-90s and was under construction for a notorious record 17 years. "Kazan" has not just grown out of these design and technological diapers, but has outgrown and stepped far ahead.
Vladimir Dorofeev, General Director of Malachite, emphasized this fact in a special way in the annual report, which is publicly available on the official website of the Design Bureau: "We are confident that the innovative technical and technological solutions implemented in this project and worked out during the delivery tests of the Kazan submarine will become the basis for creating even more powerful, intelligent and technologically advanced ships of new projects."
K-573 Novosibirsk followed Kazan: according to the same project, it was laid down at Sevmash in July 2013 and was built, saturated with equipment in the conditions of the slipway shop until December 2019. That is, another year and three months after the head "Kazan" began testing and, let's say, its problem areas and "children's diseases" appeared. So, there was a hypothetical opportunity to bring something-fix it-replace it on the slipway-with the knowledge of the design bureau and with the participation of equipment suppliers.
In the last days of December 2019, the Novosibirsk was taken off the slipway and launched. And for another year and a half, installation, commissioning and commissioning works were carried out at the Sevmash completion embankment on the serial submarine, including the physical start-up of the reactor, control tests of the steam-producing installation, backup engines, other systems and mechanisms that ensure the survivability of the submarine, its combat effectiveness and the safety of the crew.
I do not doubt for a minute that the designers and builders of nuclear submarines, and "Novosibirsk" in particular, understand better than anyone that the inconsistencies, failures and "sores" identified during the testing of the lead submarine, on serial ships, it is necessary to choose "on shore" to the maximum - that is, before going to sea, so as not to step on the same rake during factory and state tests.
And then-let's be optimistic! - there is a chance at least "under the Christmas tree" to transfer the long-awaited "Novosibirsk"to the Navy. The President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Alexey Rakhmanov confirms these plans and intentions, including with his statements on the eve and on the opening day of the MVMS-2021. And such a task, according to him, has been set for Malakhit, Sevmash and all participants of scientific and industrial cooperation.
And it is prescribed to serve the Novosibirsk in the Pacific Fleet. There is a particularly acute need for new submarines there. In the Vilyuchinsk garrison in Kamchatka, as we have already reported, a modern basing and maintenance infrastructure for the fourth-generation strategic missile carriers of the project 955 "Borey-A"has been built and is being expanded. I want to believe that by the time the no less difficult to maintain and expensive "Ash Trees" with the letter "M" come to the TOPF, the proper conditions will be created for them.
Alexander Emelianenkov
