Russian Naval Shipbuilding Industry: News

Construction of Zvezda shipyard’s second stage will be completed 4 years ahead of schedule

BOLSHOI KAMEN /Primorsky Region/, June 2. /TASS/. The construction of the second stage of Zvezda shipyard in the town of Bolshoi Kamen in Russia’s Primorsky Region will completed in 2020, four years ahead of schedule announced earlier, Vice President of Russia’s top oil producer Rosneft Andrey Shishkin said on Saturday.
"The finishing date of the second stage is 2024, though we will finish it in 2020, which will substantially speed up (the work)," he said at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Presidential Plenipotentiary in the Far Eastern Federal District Yuri Trutnev on Saturday.
Zvezda Shipbuilding Complex is being created on the basis of the Zvezda Far Eastern Shipyard by the consortium of Rosneftegaz, Rosneft and Gazprombank. The project of the complex involves the construction of a heavy fitting dock, dry dock, full-cycle production facilities, and workshops for the construction of offshore marine equipment.

The shipbuilding complex Zvezda will produce large-capacity vessels, elements of offshore platforms, ice-class vessels, special vessels and other types of marine equipment.

http://tass.com/economy/1007687

Annual Report of the Severnaya Verf (Northern Shipyard) for 2017

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3248296.html

Annual Report of Zelenodolsk Plant for 2017

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3267081.html

Big_Gazza wrote:

Hole wrote:The United shipbuilding Company is state owned. The problem is the Russian Navy doesn´t have an infinite amount of money. And they got a lot of programmes running, all sorts of ships and submarines. More than 100 are being build, fitted out or tested. Most other countries have three or four programmes. Englang has build one carrier and a few destroyers in the last years. Nothing else. No frigates or submarines. In the next years they will spend most of their money on new SSBN´s.

Well said, and it is this fact that accounts for much of the delays (along engine supply issues and a re-evaluation of priorities).  With so many irons in the fire, each project has a set cash flow under the national re-armament plan.  If the shipyard runs into issues, the solution is to extend the build to absorb delays and defer completion.  Russia refuses to combat problems by throwing money at it like we do in the West, reasoning correctly that such will only encourage corruption and do little to solve anything.

Personally, I think this is a exactly the way an MIC should be run.  State-owned enterprises competing with each other in terms of price, quality and delivery, and mandated by the State to deliver at the best terms to the public need.  Workers get paid, execs get bonuses based on meeting KPIs (not based on profit but on efficiency and delivering to plan), and all profits are invested back into the enterprise (and supplemented by gov-appointed funds for specific upgrades).  Russia isn't there yet by a country mile, but the trajectory is promising.

How has it tried to solve Almaz antey's shitshow other than throwing money at their lobbyists?

KomissarBojanchev wrote:

Big_Gazza wrote:

Hole wrote:The United shipbuilding Company is state owned. The problem is the Russian Navy doesn´t have an infinite amount of money. And they got a lot of programmes running, all sorts of ships and submarines. More than 100 are being build, fitted out or tested. Most other countries have three or four programmes. Englang has build one carrier and a few destroyers in the last years. Nothing else. No frigates or submarines. In the next years they will spend most of their money on new SSBN´s.

Well said, and it is this fact that accounts for much of the delays (along engine supply issues and a re-evaluation of priorities).  With so many irons in the fire, each project has a set cash flow under the national re-armament plan.  If the shipyard runs into issues, the solution is to extend the build to absorb delays and defer completion.  Russia refuses to combat problems by throwing money at it like we do in the West, reasoning correctly that such will only encourage corruption and do little to solve anything.

Personally, I think this is a exactly the way an MIC should be run.  State-owned enterprises competing with each other in terms of price, quality and delivery, and mandated by the State to deliver at the best terms to the public need.  Workers get paid, execs get bonuses based on meeting KPIs (not based on profit but on efficiency and delivering to plan), and all profits are invested back into the enterprise (and supplemented by gov-appointed funds for specific upgrades).  Russia isn't there yet by a country mile, but the trajectory is promising.

How has it tried to solve Almaz antey's shitshow other than throwing money at their lobbyists?

You have any evidence that the Rus gov is "throwing money" at Almaz-Antei to solve the "shit-show" as you describe it (I presume you are referring to Poliment-Redut and the apparent issues with mid-course guidance updates with the long range missile variant)? Can't rule out that AA are getting extra payments, possibly for changes to scope/spec, but they will be expected to draw on their own financial resources to deliver on their obligations.

BTW no-one throws money at "lobbyists" as by definition, they are paid by the enterprise they are representing.

Almaz-Antey is state-owned so even in the worst case it would be one part of the russian state (Defence Ministry) throwing money to another part of the russian state.

Annual report of OAO "Shipbuilding Plant named after the October Revolution"

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3310548.html

Official start of work for the drydock at Zvezda https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3340572.html
(CGI)

Apparently they're 3yrs ahead of schedule, already started work on first Aframax tanker & some supply vessels

Google Translate wrote:
To date, in the portfolio of SSC "Zvezda" orders 26 vessels:
- four multifunctional supply vessels of the ice class;
- ten Aframax tankers;
- ten arctic shuttle tankers with a deadweight of 42,000 tons;
- Arctic shuttle tanker with a deadweight of 69 thousand tons;
- shallow icebreaker.

Isos wrote:https://mobile.twitter.com/Capt_Navy/status/1048890112623484928

Fresh pics of warships being build in Zaliv shipbuilding yard.

Seems that there is very little progress since spring 2017.

Dual purpose as it's said nuclear subs can or is supposed to undergo refit at Zvezda shipyard.

The orders currently are all civillian vessels. But huge prospects for military.

Interview of the General Director of JSC "Zelenodolsk Plant named after AM. Gorky "

The Tatarstan online newspaper Realnoe Vremya has published an interview with the general director of the Zelenodolsk Plant named after A.M. Gorky "Alexander Karpov about the current situation and prospects of this enterprise.

 What ships are preparing to descend from the stocks this year, why Tatarstan "Cheetahs" are still interested in the countries of Southeast Asia and what the main advantage of the plant in the field of ship repair and service, said in an interview with "Real Time" Zelenodolsk plant named after AM. Gorky "Alexander Karpov.

The state defense order is the basis of production of JSC “Zelenodolsk plant named after A.M. Gorky ”is a part of the Ak Bars Shipbuilding Corporation (a group of companies of the Holding Company Ak Bars JSC). Tatarstan shipbuilders timely provide the navy of Russia with modern warships of various classes, successfully fulfill export contracts and this year decided to resume the production of river ships at their own risk.

- JSC "Zelenodolsk plant named after AM. For many decades, Gorky has been fulfilling the state defense order for the construction of ships of various classes for the Russian fleet. How do you cope with the implementation of this complex and responsible state task, if the suppliers of equipment and components participating in cooperation postpone their shipment deadlines for a later time?

   - Indeed, the timely delivery of ships for the Russian Navy depends on many factors and above all on the compliance of the shipping schedule for the delivery of technological equipment by our contractors. The technology of building ships, like no other in the military-industrial complex, is distinguished by a high degree of cooperative ties and technological complexity. We have a huge number of suppliers of interconnected equipment, so linking the synchronization of actions between them is quite difficult. However, we are constantly in direct contact with our manufacturers and promptly respond to emergency situations, if any. This allows for faster deliveries. Of course, there is a system of fines and penalties, but their amounts are not more than three percent. This is a relatively small amount. I believe that fines should be large, so that the executors have increased responsibility for fulfilling contractual obligations in the framework of the state defense order.

- How do you catch up when the supplying companies fail?

- We are moving to round-the-clock three-shift work.

- What ships will be delivered this year?

- This year we have handed over the small rocket ship Pr. 21631 Vyshny Volochek (developed by Zelenodolsk PKB JSC). In June in Sevastopol, I personally participated in the ceremony of raising the flag of St. Andrew on this ship.

   Small rocket ships of the project 21631 are multi-purpose ships of the “river-sea” class, equipped with the most modern models of artillery, rocket, anti-sabotage, anti-aircraft and radio engineering weapons. To date, the plant has handed over to the state customer six ships of this project, which are currently performing assigned tasks in their regions and, according to military sailors, confirm their viability. Also passed the next boat of special purpose of the project. 21980 "Rook".

   Until the end of this year, we plan to hand over three more ships to the state customer: a small rocket ship of the project 21631 Orekhovo-Zuyevo, two patrol ships of the project 22160 Vasily Bykov and Dmitry Rogachev.

   I think that the transfer of the lead patrol ship of the project 22160 (developed by JSC “North Design Bureau”, the city of St. Petersburg). will be a notable event for the industry. These are unique ships, currently unparalleled in Russia, built on a modular basis, which allows you to change equipment and weapons depending on the upcoming task. In addition, we are preparing to surrender the second ship of this project "Dmitry Rogachev" over the plan. According to the contract with the Ministry of Defense, we have to pass it next year, but, honor and praise to our labor collective, “pulled out” it ahead of time. We have prepared it and we want, in any case, to try to pass in the same year.

- Alexander Nikolayevich, the information that your enterprise was contracted until 2023 sounded more than once. What projects are of strategic importance for the enterprise?

- Each project is of strategic importance for us. We plan to continue the construction of small rocket ships of the project 21631, border guard patrol ships of the project 22100, patrol ships of the project 22160, special purpose boats pr. 21980, cable vessels pr.15310, small rocket ships pr. 22800.

- Recently, a presidential decree was issued on transferring shares of ZPKB and your company to the ownership of RT. With the accession of ZPKB, will new projects appear in the company's portfolio?

- In Europe and Asia, every shipyard has its own design bureau. This is a big plus. Zelenodolsk Design Bureau has proved a high level of its work, and I believe that in its power it is not inferior to the Almaz Central Design Bureau, Northern PKB, Vympel Design Bureau, Maritime Design and AgatDesign Bureau, with whom we are working.

Today, the development dynamics of the shipbuilding industry has a pronounced growth trend. The civil fleet renewal is one of the strategically important tasks set by the state for the enterprises of the shipbuilding industry. Therefore, of course, the country has a need for new projects.

Zelenodolsk plant named after AM. Gorky - the only shipbuilding plant in modern history, which has mastered the serial construction of high-speed passenger ships and keeps the bar of leadership to the present. The A145 vessels built by the plant (developed by Agat Design Bureau (St. Petersburg) are successfully operated in Yakutia, in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District.

In the current year, we laid two river pleasure-excursion vessels of projects 03620 and 03621, which were developed by the Zelenodolsk PKB. These vessels are diesel ships, have a modern exterior and interior design and meet the latest requirements of comfort and safety of transportation.

Our production facilities allow us to build ships and vessels of various classes and purposes. We welcome innovation.

- This year your company took part in two large military exhibitions - the International Military-Technical Forum "Army-2018" and the International Far Eastern Sea Salon-where the capabilities of the Russian Navy were demonstrated. What do they remember?

- Participation in these exhibitions allowed us to negotiate with potential customers. Present new plant designs and modern ship designs.

As for the Army-2018 forum, here the main event for the company was the signing of the State contract for maintenance, technical supervision during operation with docking of ships and boats of projects 21630, 21631, 21980, 22160 from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. It is worth noting that we are newcomers in the field of ship servicing, we have been working in this direction for the whole third year. However, we have a number of advantages, the most important of which is that we undertake to maintain the ship for its entire life cycle.

- How do you assess the demand for your products from the states of Southeast Asia? What kind of ships do they need?

- Today, foreign customers want to have modern weapons: more accurate and powerful. And our plant, as I have already said, is constantly working with project bureaus on improving the combat qualities of projects, and is searching for the most promising developments of the domestic military-industrial complex. New ships are being installed on ships under construction (Caliber, Pantsir, innovative anti-submarine weapons), which makes them more effective and efficient.

If there is interest in the foreign customer and there are orders, we are ready to build ships for export.

- How is the project of building civil ships - river ships?

- For the near future, we have identified priority areas for development: first of all, this is the construction of pleasure craft projects 03620 and 03621, gliding-type vessels, in particular, high-speed passenger ships based on the A145 project, displacement passenger ships, as well as the construction of self-propelled and non-self-propelled cargo fleet, construction of fishing vessels and technical fleet vessels.

By 2022, we plan to increase the volume of civilian products to 50 percent of the total portfolio of orders.

- Zelenodolsk plant named after AM. Gorky is one of the oldest shipbuilding enterprises in the country. How is its modernization going?

- In this question we follow the simple principle - step by step. The program of phased technical re-equipment and modernization of production started in 2011. Since then, we have invested in the renovation of the enterprise about 5.6 billion rubles. Maybe for someone it is a small amount, but for our plant it is significant. Every year we are trying to modernize one production hall. We have updated everything that is necessary for shipbuilding as a matter of priority. So, they updated the line of primary metal cutting, the line of water-jet cutting, the assembly of flat sections and micropanels.

During this time, a large amount of work was carried out to modernize the body of the procurement and metallurgical industries, put into operation modern equipment of leading world manufacturers. Modernized shop things, marine engineering. In February of this year, the pipe mill shop was opened after repair, where the CNC tube-bending equipment and an optical measuring system were installed.

Now we are engaged in the modernization of the titanium casting shop. This unique production was launched in 1967. Work began with the site for the production of casting models. We plan to install modern CNC woodworking centers, replace outdated equipment, and carry out complex works related to infrastructure. The second stage will be the modernization of the main production of the titanium casting plant. The whole program is designed for 3 years, and the work is carried out without stopping the existing production.

- Young personnel - a pledge of the future enterprise. How do you attract young professionals? What social programs contribute to their consolidation in the enterprise?

- Today the plant is developing and demonstrating high performance. We have orders until 2023 and have confidence in the future, so young people come to us to work. It should be noted that young specialists come from the nearest cities of Tatarstan and even from other regions. This was achieved largely due to the conditions created for young people. A young specialist who comes from another city receives departmental housing, a lifting allowance of 30,000 rubles and a salary of at least 20,000. Also, in the Dolphin sanatorium, the employees relax on preferential terms and play sports at Avangard Sports Complex "And get the prospect of obtaining housing in the residential complex" Red Metalist ".

In the factory program of staffing clearly defined ways to solve problems in the recruitment of qualified personnel, among them - cooperation with higher and secondary educational institutions, specialized schools and institutions.

The plant interacts with higher educational institutions of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan in such areas as:

raising the educational level of employees

correspondence training

carrying out industrial, technological and pre-diploma practice of students: secondary vocational education, higher professional education

In 2012—2016 By the decision of the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Protection of the Republic of Tatarstan, a state order was approved for the training of professional personnel on the basis of the Zelenodolsk Mechanical College, in the profession shipbuilder-ship repairman of metal ships.

Theoretical training is conducted in specialized training classes of the Training Training Center (“Shipbuilding” and “Metal cutting”).

Educational practice of students is carried out in the training workshops (assembly plant) of the factory Training Center for training.

Work practice - in the workplace in the production shops of the plant.

A valuable forge of personnel for the plant is the Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.N. Tupolev - KAI. On the basis of this university, shipbuilders, ocean engineers, designers and technologists are trained. The same purpose is served by the KNRTU-KAI Shipbuilding Center opened in 2013. Students have practical and pre-diploma practice at the plant.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3390795.html

Interview with the head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation

Russian shipbuilding, long considered a problematic industry, ended the year with a series of accidents - after the flooding at the Rosneft shipyard of the unique PD-50 floating boat, a fire broke out on the Viktor Chernomyrdin icebreaker under construction. At the same time, the industry continues to talk about the need to build new ships, especially against the background of obsolete fleet and a large state program for the development of the Arctic. When and where the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft-carrying cruiser will now be repaired, why the construction of nuclear-powered icebreakers is being delayed and whether the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) will leave the Zvezda super-ship project, Kommersant was told by USC Alexey Rakhmanov.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3464185.html

LMFS wrote:Will Rosneft Boost Russian Naval Construction?

https://russiandefpolicy.blog/2018/09/25/will-rosneft-boost-russian-naval-construction/

Thoughts? Is this merely for improvement of civilian shipbuilding industry or will it maybe be capable of addressing big military projects too?

Well helping the civilian area will help the military one also.

If they can learn to build hulls faster and better that will translate to a warship, so yes it will.

I don't think the problem is actually making the warships... the Mistral components they had to make were made quickly enough... I suspect the problems are somewhere else in management and project planning, and possibly funding.

There are different types of processes in any project... some are independent and can be done at any time, while others need certain processes to be finished before they can be finished or before they can even start. That means a problem in one area might lead to problems and delays in other areas that can stop progress.

The point is that without experience you can't be sure how long each step will take... as you get experience you might realise that one supplier is always late and another is often early but tries to over charge or whatever.

Planning for the second and later builds of the same design becomes easier because you can work out that some jobs can go faster, or the jobs that take longer can be started earlier or have more people assigned to them to get them done on time to prevent holding up other steps.

It is about being accurate with time and resource estimations and using resource and manpower allocations to keep things going.

Of course if you have no engines then there is not a huge lot you can do about that... that comes down to a call from higher up to sort that out.

At "Zvezda" will br designed a new dock for the repair of diesel and nuclear submarines of third and fourth generations. The initial purchase price is 4.1 million rubles.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3520531.html

Russia's OSK chief Rakhmanov says the state-owned shipbuilding conglomerate has MOD contracts exceeding 1 trillion rubles over 10-12 years.

http://www.armstrade.org/includes/periodics/news/2019/0319/141051517/detail.shtml

The 35th SRZ in Murmansk will be upgraded to repair the "Admiral Kuznetsov"

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3578074.html

There was some recent discussion about validity of naval Azipods, interesting that Zvezdochka has finished development of a domestic Russian 9MW azipod https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3584640.html

Only the 3rd manufacturer in the world.
Specifically stated as designed for Icebreakers but could be a thing that crops up elsewhere too.

The future of ships is all electric propulsion, which means the end of an engine or boiler with long heavy shafts attached to the main propellers.

I have mentioned the analogy of the motor car where the engine is actually moved from where it is to being an electric motor inside the wheel, or in this case an electric motor with a propeller attached in a pod.

It means you could put the electric generation system anywhere... put it somewhere where it can be lifted out and replaced like a battery... for instance...

That battery might be a compact nuclear power plant or it could be a self contained module with a gas turbine engine and fuel supply attached to an electric generator, or a diesel generator connected to an electric generator.

Connections to batteries and fuel cells and capacitors will enable all sorts of power generation options but electric motors will be the standard propulsion of the vehicle.

More useful for a car than a boat, but coming down hills means not only not using power, but actually recovering small amounts too...

Imagine a Yacht with sails made of a flexible material with solar panels in it so it can generate speed from wind and sun based energy can be stored for when there is no wind.... instead of heavy batteries you could have a fuel cell converting water to hydrogen gas which can be used as a power source when there is no sun or wind to propel the vessel...

If the goal is to make a VTOL as the new deck fighter then they might as well let the Admiral K sink off Kola Bay.

[i]

Yeah, but the problem there is that some people think it is just a case of wanting VTOL deck fighters and the problem is solved.

The Soviets and the Russians have never made a fighter aircraft that is VSTOL that is anything as like as good as a simple conventional STOL jet fighter.

The Yak-36 was a testbed with no military capability at all.

The Yak-38 and Yak-38M would be vastly inferior to using an Su-25 as a fighter... at least it has a decent gun and some armour and the capacity to carry a lot of weapons.

The Yak-41 well we really don't know... there was a lot of talk and bluster, but it never really got past test bed either to be honest... the main engine seemed OK, but there were issues with landing and taking off and its weapon system was never developed and it only ever had four available wing pylons AFAIK and no possibility for using belly mounted weapons or fuel because of the heat generated during landing and takeoff there...

Some members here think it would be wonderful, but I really doubt it... just because of basic logic... to be able to hover and to manouver in the hover it needs balanced lift and when the main engine is super powerful to make it supersonic then it either needs to be near the centre of gravity of the aircraft or you need some serious lift power at the front to balance it.... you also need jet thrust nozzles in the tip of your nose, the tips of the tail and the wing tips to allow manouvering in the hover... which means piping high pressure air from the engines to the aircraft nose, aircraft wingtips, and aircraft tail... if any of those fail or are damaged you cannot land vertically and they take up internal volume that can't really be used to store fuel or electronics because of the risk of a burst pipe...

Very simply when designing something you need proportions... a certain sized aircraft needs X amount of power in terms of engine thrust... if you put too much thrust in you generally end up with a fast but short ranged aircraft. Not enough and you end up with a sluggish aircraft not suited to being a fighter or an interceptor.
By demanding VSTOL what you are doing is adding weight and greatly increasing the amount of thrust needed... the Yak-41 is an excellent case in point... it was not a big aircraft by any means, but an 15.5 ton thrust main engine... the MiG-29 was a similar size with an 18 ton MTOW with two 8.3 ton thrust engines, so 16.6 ton thrust in total engine thrust in normal flight... the Yak-41 was slightly longer by perhaps a metre and slightly narrower by a metre also, and its MTOW was about 19.5 tons so it needed a 15.5 ton thrust engine to propel it forward but it only manages 1,800km/h because 15.5 tons thrust is not enough to get it airborne... it needs two extra engines... each producing 4.2 tons of thrust to get the aircraft into the air... it is literally the same as taking the two engines from an Su-25 and sticking them directly behind the cockpit of the MiG-29 pointing downwards and modifying the RD-33 engines so they can vector downwards so that it can take off properly, but once in the air those Su-25 engines do nothing and are dead weight till it is time to land... the internal volume needed to allow two jet engines to be placed behind the cockpit increase the frontal area of the aircraft and make it a design that could never get past mach 1.6 or so... a bit like the F-35s problem... now there is a surprise.

I believe that is where they are heading. Reason for Mistral in first place was that I think. Putin made it clear a VTOL is in budget and in works. Very excited to see it. But in that regard, they will end up going with floating jump jet carriers be it cargo like ships to really reduce costs or something more military special like the Mistral. In either case, much cheaper.

If that is the case then I would suggest they drop the whole thing... that is even cheaper still, and will save a lot of embarrassment and technology dead ends.

https://bmpd.livejournal.com/3609282.html
Interesting stuff about staffing the big Zvezda shipyard in the East.

Namely they're nicking staff from a bunch of other shipyards.
Which could partially explain slowdown in output from other yards.