As the Vedomosti newspaper reported in the material of Herman Kostrinsky, Alexey Polukhin and Alexey Nikolsky, "The Ministry of Agriculture refused to build three large scientific vessels," the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation refused to build three large-tonnage research vessels (NIS) with a total cost of more than 70 billion rubles. This follows from the explanatory note to the draft decree of the Government of the Russian Federation on amendments to the state program "Development of the fisheries complex", posted on the portal regulation.gov.ru . The draft resolution proposes to maintain plans for the construction of seven NIS by 2030 instead of the originally planned ten, excluding three large-tonnage vessels from the program.
Image of a large-tonnage marine research vessel of project 23460 developed by JSC "R.E. Alekseev Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoils" (c) Federal Agency for Fisheries
The text of the note states that the Russian Ministry of Defense in 2023 "did not confirm interest" in the redesign, construction and operation of large-tonnage offshore NIS. The construction of these vessels in existing sizes and "with the presence of designed special equipment" for the fisheries complex is impractical, the document states. The priority is left to the construction of medium-tonnage vessels that will "increase the efficiency and potential" of scientific research.
In November 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture issued a draft government decree on financing the construction of the main large-tonnage NIS from the budget. Construction was to begin in 2022, during the year the customer of the project of the Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography (VNIRO) was to receive the first 900 million rubles, the entire project was estimated at 23.5 billion rubles.
"The use of new vessels will additionally recommend at least 400,000 tons of various types of aquatic biological resources for fishing in the exclusive economic zones of Russia, and taking into account the expansion of the Russian presence in the convention areas - at least 600,000 tons," the explanatory note to the resolution said at the time.
Ilya Shestakov, the head of Rosrybolovstvo, has repeatedly stated about the deterioration of the Soviet-built NIS fleet and the need to build new ones. NIS are necessary for the study of fish habitats in territorial waters and the formation of catch forecasts.
The representative of Rosrybolovstvo did not comment on the situation with large-tonnage NIS, but said that VNIRO now has more than 300 watercraft, including small ones. Of these, 18 are under the supervision of the Russian Maritime Register, five of them with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons. "As a rule, these are ships built at the end of the XX century. Scientific vessels regularly undergo overhaul and modernization, which allows to extend their service life," the source added.
The construction of large NIS was to be carried out according to project 23460, developed by the Alekseev Central Design Bureau. The St. Petersburg "Severnaya Verf" (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, USC), specializing in the creation of surface warships, counted on the order. The general director of the shipyard Igor Orlov (former governor of the Arkhangelsk region) publicly declared his interest in the project.
A USC spokesman declined to comment. Vedomosti's source in the company claims that over the past year and a half, a contract for the construction of large NIS "has not been concluded with any of the plants" in its perimeter. A representative of the Ministry of Agriculture forwarded questions to Rosrybolovstvo. Vedomosti sent requests to the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, VNIRO.
At the end of 2021, two medium-tonnage NIS projects 17050 worth 5.9 billion rubles were laid at the Nevsky Shipbuilding and Ship Repair plant of USC in Shlisselburg. The date of laying the next ships of the series is currently unknown.
After the sanctions were imposed, foreign suppliers of equipment for ships under construction refused to fulfill their obligations and did not deliver the already paid equipment for two NIS of project 17050, the representative of Rosrybolovstvo noted. USC-Movement and PKB Petrobalt have been involved in the work on the new project, he explained. "Over the past year, a new NIS project has been developed and agreed with all participants, in which domestic devices and elements are used instead of imported equipment. The vessels under construction exactly meet the requirements of the contract," the source says.
A source of Vedomosti at one of the shipbuilding enterprises of St. Petersburg claims that the contract for the construction of large NIS should have been received not by Severnaya Verf, but by Admiralty Shipyards of USC - a larger plant in St. Petersburg. According to the interlocutor, the loss of NIS should not affect Admiralty Shipyards. They have enough orders both through the Ministry of Defense and on relatively new fishing topics, he explains. But the "Northern Shipyard" such an order, according to him, would not hurt, given the fact that the company "Norebo" takes away a significant part of their fishing vessels (Vedomosti wrote about this on March 1, 2023). "This year, downtime at the plant may increase, which is fraught with an outflow of personnel to other shipyards, which traditionally experience a personnel shortage," the source added.
A source in one of the fishing companies says that shipyards capable of building large-tonnage vessels are now overloaded, including the first stage of the investment quota program ("quotas for keel", when fishermen receive quotas for fishing after the construction of a new vessel. - "Vedomosti"). According to him, additional problems are created by sanctions that limit the number of suppliers of the element and aggregate base.
In Soviet times, all large NIS were dual-use, their construction was subject to participation in various programs in the interests of the Ministry of Defense, recalls the scientific editor of the magazine "Arms Export" Mikhail Barabanov. Now this is probably not the case, the expert suggests. According to the Deputy Director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (TSAST) Maxim Shepovalenko, the reconnaissance ships that were proposed to be built on the basis of large-tonnage NIS belong to "peacetime ships".
On the part of bmpd, we recall that in February 2022, the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Mikhail Mishustin signed an order on granting in 2022-2025 to the federal state budgetary scientific institution "All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography" (VNIRO) from the federal budget a subsidy of 23.459 billion rubles for the construction of the main large-tonnage marine scientific andresearch vessel of project 23460 with a capacity of 13.92 MW. It was planned to complete the construction of the vessel in 2025 with its commissioning in 2026.
The construction of this vessel was supposed to be the first stage of the implementation of the construction program approved by the order of the President of the Russian Federation for the Federal Agency for Fisheries (Rosrybolostva) of three marine research vessels (NIS), the operator of which should be VNIRO. The design of such a vessel of project 23460 has been carried out for quite a long time by JSC "R.E. Alekseev Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoils" ("CCB for SEC", Nizhny Novgorod) by order of Rosrybolovstvo within the framework of the state program of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for the development of shipbuilding and technology for the development of offshore fields for 2013-2030.
The project of the vessel 23460 developed by the CCB for the SEC under the conditional name "Rostislav Alekseev" (in honor of the former head of the CCB for the SEC) was first publicly presented in December 2018 as part of the VIII International forum "The Arctic: Present and Future". At the same time, it was reported that Rosrybolovstvo accepted the draft and working documentation of the vessel, executed by the CCB for the SEC, and the documents were approved by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping on April 3, 2018. An updated version of the project 23460 was presented at the International Naval Salon MVMS-2019 in St. Petersburg in the summer of 2019.
The vessel of project 23460 is designed to perform complex oceanographic and fisheries research, study oceanological conditions for the formation of biological and commercial productivity of waters in the research areas. For this purpose, NIS is equipped with a scientific, laboratory, fishing and fish processing complex. The vessel provides for the placement of a helicopter, an unmanned aerial vehicle, a bathyscaphe and a remote-controlled uninhabited underwater vehicle. The propulsive complex of the vessel includes two full-turn rotary steering columns and two bow thrusters. It is assumed that the vessel will be able to operate in any zone of the World Ocean basin, including Antarctica and the Arctic, in accordance with the class of the vessel.
Design characteristics:
Overall length - 121.21 m
Overall width - 27.2 m
Draft - 8.0 m
Displacement - 14,000 tons
Full speed - 15 knots.
Low-noise speed - 8-11 uz
The number of the scientific group is 76 people .
The number of the crew is 28 people .
Apparently, the rejection of the program for the construction of three NIS of project 23460 is another indication that in the conditions of an increasingly protracted war and all-encompassing Western sanctions, Russia will face an increasing shortage of financial and technological resources for the implementation of any large-scale civilian programs.
