Auxilliary vessels, Special-purpose and minor naval ships

Hole wrote:A simple platform to bring troops/vehicles/supplies to the shore from a larger ship, I guess. The older hovercrafts were mostly designed to work on their one, i.e. go from your own shore to that of the enemy.

Hole wrote:A simple platform to bring troops/vehicles/supplies to the shore from a larger ship, I guess. The older hovercrafts were mostly designed to work on their one, i.e. go from your own shore to that of the enemy.

Russian Navy to Obtain New Long-Range Rescue Ships

New sea/ocean zone salvage ships will be designed for the Russian Navy to replace Project 1452 Pamir-class rescuers. The designers received such an assignment from the naval command late in 2019, reports Mil.Press citing two informed insiders, an industry and a naval one.

According to one of them, Almaz Design Bureau is engaged in the corresponding works. Another source shared that the bureau had finished the vessel’s pilot project by the end of Q1, 2020.

The need for the new rescue ships with a silo-type rescue bell is estimated as 8-10, said the insiders.

The new rescuer will displace about 5,000 tons, be 100 meters long, up to 18 meters wide and have 5 meters draft. One of the ship’s features is improved ice resistance: Arc5-class and higher.

The new ship will have the silo-type rescue bell to ensure deeper dives, the industry insider told Mil.Press. However, the vessel is designed for specific missions, rather than to replace the Project 21300 Dolphin-class submarine rescuer, added the source. Mass production of the latter is suspended, as the designers plan to improve the project.

So far, other details of the project are veiled. Mil.Press failed to get any prompt comments either from the navy or Almaz design bureau.

FOR REFERENCE

Project 1452 Pamir-class sea zone rescue tugs were commissioned in the Soviet Navy between 1974 and 1983. Out of four vessels ever built, three are still in service.

Further, nine Project 527 rescue ships (when laid down, classified as sea zone tugs) were built for the Soviet Navy since 1959 to 1965. Currently, the Russian Navy operates only lead ship of that project, EPRON, though highly upgraded later.

Russian Designers Offer Navy a Line of Hospital Ships, One Project Already Finalized

In April and May, several Russian design bureaus offered the defense ministry their projects of new ambulance vessels, the insiders in three design companies told Mil.Press. Two bureaus are members of United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC).

Media reported in June that the Russian defense minister, Sergey Shoygu had raised the issue of hospital ships procurement. The matter was discussed in the government, and the Ministry of Industry & Trade insists such ships must be created in Russia.

One of the options is to purchase two RO/RO ships in Asia with further refitting into hospital ships. The procedure was evaluated at approx. 8 mln rubles.

However, the Russian Navy needs at least 3 large hospital ships and, perhaps, some other smaller vessels of this kind, an informed naval source shared with Mil.Press.

Two designers from major Russian bureaus said even in case of a small series, it is more reasonable to build such ships locally, out of Russian-made components and at Russian shipyards. According to the experts, current trend of the life cycle contracts ultimately makes the maintenance of Russian equipment cheaper and, most importantly, working for the national economy.

Most deeply, the hospital ship project was elaborated by the Vympel Design Bureau located in Nizhny Novgorod. Mil.Press reported in 2018 that the vessel’s technical project based on unified modular platform was designed under Platform-DTO development work. Now the project is pending the customer’s decision. The hospital ship designed by Vympel is offered in several configurations differing by the bed capacity and complexity of medical equipment.

Nevskoe Design Bureau presented its works as well. The matter is a number of projects based on amphibious ships with various displacement, payload and capabilities.

Number of beds in the projects offered to the military is 50, 150, 500 and 1,000. Thus, all needs of the medical service are met. "Obviously, Russian designers and shipbuilders are able to create national hospital ships. What is critical in this case is series production and timely funding", said a top-ranking source at a USC design bureau interviewed by Mil.Press.

In October 2018, Russian Navy’s ex-commander Admiral (Ret.) Vladimir Masorin complained that the ambulance ships had not been renewed for a long time: "In those days, the series of modular ships for auxiliary fleet was more than we could hope for".

Currently, Russian Navy operates three Project 320 hospital ships built in Poland. They were commissioned in 1980-1990’s, and the lead ship was signed off in 1997. In total, the Soviet Union planned to obtain five ships of that type, but the last ship was not completed.

GarryB wrote:I would add that in an interview with the makers of the new helicopter carriers it was mentioned as a possibility that the open areas and room for taking large numbers of naval infantry for landing also makes such ships suitable for being used as hospital ships as well... they said in the design they were deciding what level of hospital equipment and medical potential it would need as a basic core for any role it might be used for and then they will look at potential to expand that if needed so that several extra ships could be built that are then used as hospital ships or landing ships or indeed a transport ship that just carries armoured forces to be deployed from a port without needing landing ships.

The potential is that if they can make them multipurpose then they could buy rather more ships and use them for purposes as needed... if they were helicopter landing vessels only then they might only want four of them, but if they can be used to transport large armoured forces then perhaps six or 8 of them could be built... especially if there is a hospital version for disaster relief that could carry amphibious vehicles and helicopters to recover the injured and those in need of medical care as well as treat them on board the ships.

Obviously the guy pitching this idea works for the company making the helicopter carriers, so obviously that is the ship he wants to sell, but it sounds reasonable to me.

На верфи судостроительной фирмы "Алмаз" в Санкт-Петербурге вывели из эллинга корпус ледокола "Евпатий Коловрат" проекта 21180М, строительство которого продолжается в интересах Минобороны РФ. Об этом в пятницу, 20 ноября, сообщает Корабел.ру со ссылкой на пресс-службу предприятия.

At the shipyard of the Almaz shipbuilding company in St. Petersburg, the hull of the Evpatiy Kolovrat icebreaker of project 21180M was removed from the slipway, the construction of which continues in the interests of the RF Ministry of Defense. This was reported on Friday, November 20, by Korabel.ru with reference to the press service of the enterprise.