Icebreakers

Second Arktika class - Sibir to start sea trials:

https://twitter.com/Sudostroenie_in/status/1458374917192392711

Impressive units. Ultimately, there will be seven icebreakers this project and and three even bigger Leaders.

Arrow wrote:Impressive units.  Ultimately, there will be seven icebreakers this  project and and three even bigger Leaders.

They are magnificent ships. But I like the way they reimagined the whole superstructure of the Leider with a very modern look. In either case I am sure the Arktika class will slice through the ice this winter now that some debugging has been done.

This is one of the best pieces I have ever seen on the matter.



... just ... enjoy ...

That is some amazing footage. Do you know if it was towing that ship? I was surprised to see how close it was.

Would have to be a tow... large ships like that could not operate that close together... they simply would not be able to respond in time and would be colliding all the time if they were not under tow.

mnztr wrote:That is some amazing footage. Do you know if it was towing that ship? I was surprised to see how close it was.

Yes, it was a towing operation. Take a look at the stem of each icebreaker.
They are constructed in a special way having a port to host a bow of the towed ships, making it combined. Like a tram

Yes, more like a train connection... otherwise if the icebreaker hit a heavy piece of ice and slowed down, with a very short rope or cable, the towed vessel which would be an enormous weight would ram the back end of the icebreaker and do damage.

With a connection the icebreaker could probably use the extra weight of the vessel it is towing for momentum to push through the ice probably improving performance...

The newer icebreakers seem to have a bow designed so they ride up onto the ice and crush down on it with its weight so an extra push from behind would be useful.

I suspect the rear vessel runs at idle so the icebreaker has full control but the rear vessel can keep the lights and heaters on...

Arktika is also back on trials:

https://paluba.media/news/14809

The lead universal nuclear icebreaker "Arktika" of project 22220 entered the water area of ​​the Gulf of Finland to undergo acceptance tests. The factory commissioning team of the Baltic Shipyard, together with the icebreaker crew, will check the performance of the starboard propulsion motor.
It is expected that after the completion of the tests, the nuclear-powered icebreaker "Arktika" will begin work on the Northern Sea Route.
The universal nuclear icebreaker "Arktika" is the lead ship of Project 22220. The nuclear powered ships of this project are the largest and most powerful icebreaking ships in the world. Their main task is to ensure year-round navigation in the Western region of the Arctic. In the coming years, icebreakers of Project 22220 are to become the backbone of the Russian civilian icebreaker fleet.

JohninMK wrote:
Attached by magnets?

No John, it is a rope towing. "Notch towing operation".
It is used, when the ice compression is too big for the vessel to follow the icebreaker with its own propulsion.
The problem will only increase, as the ships own engine power decreases due to environmental regulations.
It opens a whole new line of study, as the powers&stresses applied to the icebreaker stern are extremely hard to calculate.
Russians mastered that science back in the Soviet Union, and the conceptual work made there is a bulk of today's sciences, too.
The only serious study made on the matter, was publicated back in 1991, and it was "experimental" ... so imagine.
By the way, Wiaczeslaw Iwanowicz Starszinow, who made it, can be considered as a conceptual father of floating nuclear power plants, too.
A great mind of it's times, on pair with the greatest academic pioneers of the Arctic.

Sibir coming back to port after some trials

Rosatom foresees a shortage of icebreakers for the NSR heading into the future.

In order to assure smooth work of the Northern Sea Route Russia must have there 12-14 working icebreakers by 2030, head of the Northern Sea Route’s management, Rosatom’s Deputy Director General Vyacheslav Ruksha said at the 11th international forum Arctic: Present and Future.

"I would like to reiterate why we need such shipbuilding rates," he said. "That is because out of the four working icebreakers three - namely, the Taimyr, the Vaygach and the Yamal - will anyway soon stop working due to their age - about 32-35 years."

"Thus, by 2030 we will have at least 7 nuclear-powered icebreakers, while the demand is 12-14 icebreakers," he told the forum’s plenary session.

https://tass.com/economy/1369995

They can always push the envelope like the US with its ice breakers. The construction has to be scaled by realistic growth estimates
of the NSR. Rosy assumptions about how much traffic there will be via the NSR can lead to over-investment in ice breaker construction
which is just a waste of money.

Some people already think the Leader class icebreakers will be uneconomic.
Given the quick rate they can build the Project 22220 icebreakers I doubt there will be issues maintaining navigation on the NSR.

The US can continue with its pathetic single oil burning icebreaker which is only useful for making a single trip to Antarctica a year.

Might be useful to commission a few military nuclear powered ice breakers to ensure military access to the arctic that could support civilian roles if needed or if not needed for military use.

It's not an icebreaker - it's a ice demolisher!  



Project-10510 Lider

Civilian ship, man.

The guy wants more money from the state.
And he only mentions nuclear ice breakers, but there are also a few big conventional ones.

But looking at the progress the new nuclear ice breakers make the yard should have no problem in building a few more until 2030.