Russian submariners will receive three nuclear and two diesel submarines at once in 2023MOSCOW, 19 Mar — RIA Novosti.
The Russian Navy will be replenished in 2023 with five new submarines at once — three nuclear and two diesel, after repair and modernization, two more nuclear-powered submarines will return to combat strength. In addition, as Alexey Rakhmanov, General Director of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), told RIA Novosti, it is planned to conclude state contracts for the construction of new series of submarines.
The Russian Submarine Fleet on Sunday celebrates the 117th anniversary of its founding. The Submariner's Day holiday was approved in Russia in 1996 by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. The date of March 19 was set to commemorate the allocation of submarines in the Russian Navy into an independent class of warships, which was formalized by decree of Emperor Nicholas II in 1906.
The rate of boat delivery is growing
In December last year, Sevmash reported that they were optimizing the methodology of factory tests of Borey-A and Yasen-M nuclear submarines under construction at the shipyard. This will save more than 600 million rubles and speed up the delivery of ships.
In turn, Rakhmanov said that work on reducing the construction time of new nuclear submarines is constantly underway. At USC, they are trying to shorten the construction period by sending more saturated blocks to the slipway, from which the ship is assembled.
Such indicators will be achieved thanks, firstly, to a number of technological solutions, and secondly, due to the debugging of production processes during serial construction. So, from the lead ship to the first serial and from the first serial to the second, the labor intensity of the standard hour is reduced by 20 percent, and then by 10-12 percent.
Atomic Update
A landmark event in 2022 was the transfer in July to the fleet of the unique research submarine "Belgorod" project 09852. Belgorod is the first experimental carrier of the Poseidon unmanned underwater vehicles with a nuclear warhead. Work continues on the Khabarovsk nuclear submarine, which will become a regular carrier of Poseidons. Its delivery is planned this year. There is very little official information about these submarines.
In December 2022, the strategic nuclear submarine Project 955A (Borei-A) Generalissimo Suvorov, the third ship of the improved project armed with Bulava ballistic missiles, joined the Navy.
On the same day, another Borei-A, the Emperor Alexander III, was launched, which should replenish the Russian fleet after completion and successful testing by the end of 2023.
The submarines of the project 955 "Borey" and the upgraded 955A "Borey-A" belong to the fourth generation of nuclear-powered missile submarines, are armed with 16 Bulava ballistic missiles and are designed to solve the tasks of strategic nuclear deterrence.
Currently, the Navy has six such submarines: "Yuri Dolgoruky", "Alexander Nevsky", "Vladimir Monomakh", "Prince Vladimir", "Prince Oleg" and "Generalissimo Suvorov". Three more 955A boats are at different stages of construction on Sevmash: Prince Pozharsky, Dmitry Donskoy and Prince Potemkin. According to President Vladimir Putin, they will replenish the combat strength of the Russian fleet in the coming years.
The new strategic cruisers are designed to replace the legendary Soviet boats 667BDR ("Kalmar") and 667BDRM ("Dolphin"). It is assumed that they will be withdrawn from the fleet by 2030. By this time, it is planned to hand over the ninth and tenth "Boreas".
According to Rakhmanov, in 2023 the Navy will also be replenished with the Krasnoyarsk multipurpose nuclear submarine of the 885M Yasen-M project, and in 2024 with the Arkhangelsk of the same type.
Yasen-M is an upgraded version of Project 885. Yasenis are armed with Kalibr and Onyx cruise missiles, in the future it is planned to equip them with hypersonic Zircon missiles, mass production of which begins in 2023. The Navy currently has one boat of the 885 project and two of the upgraded 885M. Six more modernized "Ash trees" — "Krasnoyarsk", "Arkhangelsk", "Perm", "Ulyanovsk", "Voronezh" and "Vladivostok" — are in different stages of construction.
According to Rakhmanov, in addition to the construction of new ships, the repair and modernization of boats of previous projects continues. So, last year the Russian Navy received a modernized nuclear submarine "Tambov", this year the multipurpose nuclear submarine "Leopard" will return to the fleet.
The future of diesel
The main type of diesel-electric submarines (diesel-electric submarines) that enter the Russian fleet are the Varshavyanka of project 636.3. The project was created on the basis of Soviet submarines of project 877. Varshavyanka received new electric motors and the ability to launch Kalibr and Onyx rockets.
Earlier, the Black Sea Fleet received a series of six new diesel-electric submarines of this project. The submarines were actively used in the Syrian operation to attack militant targets from the Mediterranean and Black Seas. As part of the special operation in Ukraine, the Black Sea "Varshavyanka" regularly strikes with "Calibers" on military and critical Ukrainian infrastructure. A similar series is to be built in 2024 for the Pacific Fleet.
According to the results of 2022, the Navy received a new diesel-electric submarine "Ufa" of project 636.3 "Varshavyanka". Construction of the Mozhaysk and Yakutsk boats of Project 636.3 for the Pacific Fleet is expected to be completed this year and next.
Earlier it was reported about plans to build a similar series of six "Varshavyanok" for the Baltic Fleet, but it is currently unknown about laying additional boats for the Baltic.
This year, it is also planned to hand over to the fleet the Kronstadt DPL of the new project 677 Lada. Now the lead boat of the project "Saint Petersburg" is serving as part of the Northern Fleet. Another boat of the project, the Velikiye Luki, is being completed at the Admiralty Shipyards, two additional Ladas were planned to be laid in 2022, but this did not happen last year. Initially, the contract for the construction of these boats was signed between the Ministry of Defense and USC back in 2019, and the laying was planned for 2020.
The Navy Command has repeatedly made attempts to complete the construction of submarines of Project 636 and proceed to the construction of boats of the fourth generation of Project 677 Lada. However, due to constantly emerging problems, this decision was postponed.
As a result, only in 2021 the only non-nuclear submarine of Project 677 "Saint Petersburg", which was transferred to the fleet back in 2010, came out of pilot operation in the Northern Fleet. The lead St. Petersburg is armed only with mines and torpedoes, the rest of the Lada will be armed with Kalibr cruise missiles.
Earlier, the general director of Admiralty Shipyards, Alexander Buzakov, reported that the boats of the Lada project were being built "for a long time because of problems with contractors." In addition, it was planned to equip these submarines with an air-independent (anaerobic) installation (VNEU), which has not yet been created in Russia.
Unmanned present
According to the head of the USC, the special operation in Ukraine has once again proved that on the battlefield of the future, the main work should be performed by ground-based, air-based, as well as water-based and underwater-based UAVs.
He noted that the creation of unmanned marine facilities for the Russian fleet belongs to priority areas, but at the same time is not new for the corporation's specialists, they have been engaged in marine drones for more than ten years. Now engineers are working on expanding the functional tasks of marine drones, as well as more active use of artificial intelligence elements.
Air-independent studies
According to Rakhmanov, work on the creation of an anaerobic power plant continues. On an initiative basis, they are conducted in two directions: an electrochemical generator with diesel fuel reforming (JSC "TSKB MT "Rubin") and a closed-cycle gas turbine engine (JSC "SPMBM "Malachite"). The works are in a high stage of readiness. According to the results of their implementation, technical solutions for use in the Navy are expected.
Also, work continues with batteries that use lithium.
The development of the central design bureau of marine technology "Rubin" provides for the use of such batteries together with an anaerobic installation, which should significantly increase the combat capabilities of promising non-nuclear submarines.
Rakhmanov noted that technically the most optimal anaerobic plant is a nuclear reactor, and other options have their own risks. The development of the VNEU rests on the unavailability of several key technological solutions, namely, the storage of hydrogen on board, the use of reliable lithium batteries, but work in these areas continues.
In addition, the development of a compact energy source in the form of a small nuclear installation is of interest, and research is also underway in this area.
