On June 1, 2021, in Rybinsk in the Yaroslavl Region, the ceremony of launching a new ship for the Russian Black Sea Fleet took place. The lead ship of the Project 20360M series was named Gennady Dmitriev. The ship is being built at the facilities of the Vympel Shipyard JSC.
According to the official website of the shipyard, this is the largest vessel in the history of the enterprise. The weight of the ship's hull is currently 2,200 tons. The maritime transport of weapons is being built in Rybinsk according to the project 20360M. The lead ship of the series was named after Captain 1st Rank Gennady Dmitriev. The naval officer rose from the commander of the navigational unit of a small anti-submarine ship to the head of the department of state acceptance of ships of the Main Command of the Russian Navy.
The Vympel shipyard has been building ships for the Russian fleet since 1930. At the same time, the main specialization of the enterprise from Rybinsk was ships of small displacement. The plant actively builds missile boats, patrol boats, special-purpose boats, as well as small hydrographic vessels.
The displacement of all ships previously built at the enterprise did not exceed a thousand tons. In this regard, the maritime transport of weapons of the project 20360M can be called a unique project for the enterprise. According to Evgeny Norenko, who holds the post of general director of the enterprise, now the Vympel plant has proved that it can and will build complex ships with a large displacement.
The thorny path of the ships of the project 20360M
The Russian Ministry of Defense signed a contract with the Vympel shipyard for the construction of two transport supply ships at the end of March 2016. The deadlines for the delivery of the ships under the contract were to take place in November 2019 and December 2020, respectively. The keel-laying of the lead ship of the series, which was named Gennady Dmitriev, took place at the Vympel shipyard on May 5, 2017.
At the same time, it was not possible to meet the contractual deadlines, as is now often the case in Russian military shipbuilding. It is noted that the delay could be due to the fact that, according to the project, it was planned to place an imported power plant on the ship, in particular, they wrote about this in the bmpd military blog. The impossibility of obtaining the elements of this installation due to the sanctions imposed against Russia could become the main reason for the delay in the construction of ships of the series.
It is known that the Project 20360M maritime armament transport was designed in Nizhny Novgorod by the specialists of the Vympel Design Bureau. This is a design bureau with a 90-year history. Its engineers have created more than 540 projects, which ultimately managed to build more than 6, 5 thousand ships. One of the directions of the design bureau's work is precisely the creation of auxiliary and special ships for the Russian Navy.
The first ship of the series, which was launched in Rybinsk on June 1 of this year, will serve in the Black Sea Fleet. It is reported that Russian sailors are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the ship in Sevastopol. The second ship, which is currently being built according to the same project 20360M, was named "Vladimir Pyalov". This ship will have to replenish the composition of the Baltic Fleet of Russia.
It is known that the ships of the project 20360M are a revised version of the maritime transport of weapons of the project 20360 (code of the project "Dubnyak"). This project was considered not entirely successful. The ships were also laid down by a series of two ships. The construction was carried out by Okskaya Shipyard (Navashino, Nizhny Novgorod Region).
Work under this contract began in 2004, but the first ship, after lengthy construction and testing, was included in the Caspian Flotilla only in 2013. The second ship was completed according to a revised project as a pilot vessel for testing torpedo armament under the project 20360OS. The ship was handed over to the Russian Navy only in 2016.
The ships of the project 20360 were equipped with diesel engines of the German company Deutz AG. The maritime transports of weapons, built according to the modernized project, apparently could no longer receive them. It is curious that when the lead ship of Project 20360M was laid at the Vympel plant, banners depicting the ship of the previous project Dubnyak were used. New renders were presented only in 2018.
Features of the maritime transport of weapons of the project 20360M
The ships of the modernized project significantly increased their displacement. If the vessels of the project 20360 had a full displacement in the region of 2000-2200 tons, then for the lead ship of the project 20360M the declared total displacement, according to the official website of the manufacturer, is already 3627 tons.
Among other things, the size of the new ships has grown. So the length of the maritime transport of weapons of the project 20360M "Gennady Dmitriev" is 77 meters (the predecessors have 61, 5 meters), the width of the ship is 16 meters, the side height is 6, 3 meters, the total height is 14 meters. The draft of the ship is 4 meters.
The economic speed of the sea transport of weapons is 12 knots (about 22 km / h), the full speed is 14 knots (almost 26 km / h). The project 20360M ship is driven by an electric power plant, which has two rudder propellers. The economic cruising range is estimated at 3000 miles. The ship's autonomy (in terms of provisions) is 30 days. The crew of the ship consists of 32 people, while there is the possibility of additional accommodation on board the ship for another 22 people.
This is where the information about the technical characteristics of the ship practically ends.
But a number of interesting features of the new maritime transport of weapons were published in the Russian press. In particular, in the "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" it was indicated that for the construction of the ship "Gennady Dmitriev" the plant "Vympel" purchased 2,000 tons of sheet and profile steel. The total length of the cable network inside the ship is estimated at 190 km, the total length of pipelines on board is 30 km. The journalists also named the number of rooms on the ship - more than 180.
Already now we can say that the ships of the 20360M project are distinguished by better seaworthiness and are able to operate in different seas. Captain of the first rank Anzor Dandamaev, who was present in Rybinsk at the launching ceremony of the ship, noted that the Russian Navy is planning the serial construction of sea transports of weapons of this project. According to the officer, such ships are necessary for the Navy, since they are able to solve tasks not only in the distant sea, but also in the oceanic zone, including in the Arctic zone, since they have an ice class of the hull.
The last statement is indeed true.
The ship of the project 20360M received ice reinforcement of the hull, double sides and a double bottom. Designed for receiving, storing and transporting weapons, including ready-made and prepared for use ammunition for submarines and surface ships, Gennady Dmitriev has two large cargo holds, a platform for transporting cargo in containers, as well as a helicopter landing pad located on the bow of the ship.
An important part of the maritime transport of weapons is a powerful cargo crane with a lifting capacity of 20 tons. It is known that the shipbuilding company "Shipbuilding Shiprepair" from Nizhny Novgorod was responsible for the delivery of the launching and lifting device to the ship, and the company "Morsvyazavtomatika" was responsible for the supply of communication equipment. Thanks to the set of equipment on board, the new ship is able to receive special cargo from the berths and transfer to the ships of the fleet, both at the bases of the fleet and in the open roadstead.
For an expanding fleet with new weapons systems and growing naval ambitions, especially in the Arctic, the ships of the 20360M project are really necessary. The Soviet and Russian fleets were almost always characterized by a shortage of ships for special and auxiliary purposes. This situation needs to be corrected.
At the same time, the fleet is confident that the first ship of project 20360M launched into the water will help the development of such ships. The project will not remain in the state of a bronze monument. The experience in the construction and operation of the Gennady Dmitriev ship should help in the further modernization and improvement of the military transports of this project.
