03.02.2021
The “Nevskoye Design Bureau” in cooperation with the “Admiralty Shipyards” and the Institute of the Arctic and Antarctic is developing a universal research expeditionary vessel code-named ‘Albatross’. Mikhail Rudenko, chief designer of the “Nevskoye Design Bureau”, informed about the ship’s project at the conference “Russia and Germany: Technological Partnership in the Field of Shipbuilding”.
He specified the primary technical characteristics of the ship: Arc7 ice class, length – 160.4 m, width – 26 m, displacement – about 25 thousand tons.
“Albatross’ will be equipped with the most modern components including two large cranes with a lifting capacity of 50 tons, a powerful ship propulsion complex with two 7.5 MW rudder-propeller AZIPOD drives, hydraulic hatch covers and other marine engineering equipment – winches, spiers, etc. Moreover, all equipment must withstand extremely low temperatures.
Mr. Rudenko noted the fact that vessels like “Albatross’ have prospects for the development of exports from Russia.
Today Russia has the largest network of Antarctic stations. There are five stations in operation – Novolazarevskaya, Progress, Bellingshausen, Mirny and Vostok. Inaddition, there are fieldairfields, sub-bases, etc. There are 53 Russian bases in the Arctic, and each of them has scientific personnel. Special scientific expedition ships are being built to supply the stations. There are three such vessels in Russia at the moment – ‘Mikhail Somov’, ‘Akademician Fedorov’ and ‘Akademician Treshnikov’. But the first two need to be replaced soon.
Research expeditionary vessels are designed not only to replace the personnel of the Arctic and Antarctic stations, but also to deliver various supplies – fuel, dry cargo and can independently conduct scientific research in the World Ocean. In terms of their functionality, such vessels combine the functions of a passenger vessel, research vessel, container ship, dry cargo ship, tanker, helicopter carrier and icebreaker. In other words, one vessel combines the functions of seven at once.
According to Mr. Rudenko, the construction of multi-functional ships has become a worldwide trend in recent years. As for the progress of construction of similar ships in other countries, in 2019 the “Snow Dragon – 2” was built in China. This year it is planned The commissioning of the British ship “Sir David Attenborough” is planned for 2021, the Canadian icebreaker “John Diefenbaker” will hopefully be constructed in 2022. Last year, the Australian Arc 3 research and supply vessel ‘Nuyina’ was launched at Galati shipyard in Romania and towed to the Damen shipyard in Vlissingen, Netherlands for fitting the equipment and completion of construction. Her length is 160.3 m. In other words, ‘Albatross’ will slightly surpass ‘Nuyina’ in size and become the largest icebreaking research expeditionary ship in the world.
Natalia Gusatchenko, “Water Transport” / News