To date, the largest ships of the Russian maritime border service are the ships of Project 22100 "Ocean". These ice-class vessels are classified as 1st rank border patrol ships (PSKR). In Russia, Project 22100 patrol boats are the first ships of this type, which were developed and designed in full compliance with the requirements of the Border Guard Service of the FSB of Russia. They are an alternative to the Project 11351 1st rank patrol ships, the last of which, Vorovskiy, was decommissioned back in 2017. Unlike their predecessors, the new border ships have a several times increased cruising range, are able to provide patrolling in the Arctic latitudes and are better suited to solving the tasks that Russian border guards face today.
The ships are built in a series of five units. Two ships are already in service. These are PSKR "Polar Star" and "Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky". The third ship, Anadyr, has already been launched and is currently under construction. The conclusion of contracts for the two remaining ships of the series has been postponed to 2020. The construction of ships of this project is carried out by the Zelenodolsk plant named after A. M. Gorky, the project itself was developed by specialists of the famous JSC "Almaz Central Design Bureau". The keel-laying of the lead border patrol ship of project 22100 "Ocean" took place in Zelenodolsk (Republic of Tatarstan) on May 30, 2012. The contract for the construction of the second and third ships of project 22100 was signed in April 2015. The construction of each ship costs Russian taxpayers 8.66 billion rubles (in 2015 prices).
Project 22100 "Ocean"
The task of updating the border ships of the far sea zone has matured in Russia for a long time. The last ships of this project were designed back in the USSR. We are talking about the border patrol ships of the 1st class of project 11351. These ships are an evolution of the SKR project 1135, which until 1977 were classified in the navy as large anti-submarine ships. The most modern Russian ship of Project 11351 was launched back in 1990 and remained in service with maritime border guards until 2017. The last remaining ship of this project today is the flagship of the Ukrainian Navy "Hetman Sagaidachny", which for obvious reasons has a very conditional combat value.
Previously, most of the ships of the border guard service, especially when it came to such large ships, was a rework of warships developed in the interests of the Navy. A distinctive feature of the frontier models was a significantly curtailed set of offensive and defensive weapons. The frontier patrol ship of project 22100 code "Ocean" breaks this practice, this ship from the very beginning was created on the instructions and under the control of the Coast Guard of the Frontier Service of the FSB of Russia. The vessel does not have any military analogue ships in the Russian Navy.
The main tasks for the 1st rank PSKR of Project 22100 "Ocean" are the protection of the Russian exclusive economic zone, suppression of smuggling, illegal migration and the fight against sea piracy. Moreover, the ships are multipurpose. All PSKR project 22100 can be used for search and rescue operations at sea, rescuing from the surface crew members and passengers in distress ships, aircraft, various floating facilities. Ships can also be used to extinguish fires aboard other ships, tow and evacuate damaged and distressed ships to safe shelters. A separate task of the Okean PSKR is to assist the special forces of the FSB of Russia in the fight against terrorism. As can be seen from the code of the project itself, these are ships capable of operating in the far sea zone, their navigation area is oceanic. In fact, the navigation area of these ships is unlimited by nothing, except for autonomy.
The new ships of project 22100 differ from the border patrol ships of projects 11351P and 97P in that they are ice-class ships. This vessel can be operated in arctic latitudes. The declared ice class Arc4 allows the PSKR to sail independently in thin one-year Arctic ice, reaching a thickness of up to 0.8 meters during summer-autumn navigation and up to 0.6 meters during winter-spring navigation. Also, the ship can navigate in the channel behind the icebreaker in one-year Arctic ice up to 1 meter thick during summer-autumn navigation and up to 0.7 meters during winter-spring navigation. Experts attribute a closed tank and stern to the positive solutions that the designers applied on the ships of the project 22100 "Ocean", thanks to this technical solution, new Russian PSKRs will be able to avoid icing.
According to representatives of the manufacturer of the new Russian ship for the Coast Guard, there are currently no analogues of this ship in Russia, since the ships of Project 22100 "Ocean" are favorably distinguished by a very high degree of automation. The crew of the ship, which has a total displacement of more than three thousand tons, consists of only 44 people. For comparison, the crew of Russian small missile ships with a displacement of 1000 tons consists of about 60 people. According to the developers, the modern PSKR is one big "server". For clarity, they note that more than 500 kilometers of cable have been laid in the ship, which makes it easy to control a variety of processes on board the ship, right up to the opening and closing of individual valves.
Separately, it can be noted that the ships are endowed with great autonomy, which reaches 60-70 days. Experts note that it is the autonomy of navigation that is one of the main functions and features of the ship, which can only spend up to 7 days on the way to the patrol site. Considering the duration of the voyage, including in the Arctic latitudes, the project developers paid great attention to the comfort of the crew's accommodation, trying to create the most favorable conditions for the crew and the assigned personnel. According to the developers, the cabins of the new Russian ice-class border patrol ship are designed to accommodate two people, while each cabin has a separate bathroom. Due to the presence of two modern desalination plants on board the Coast Guard ship, the crew will be provided with cold and hot water around the clock throughout the service. The service and utility rooms on the watchdog are also designed to achieve the highest possible level of comfort while on duty.
Technical features of the ships of the project 22100
The frontier patrol boats of Project 22100 "Ocean" are rather large ships. The ship is 91.8 meters long and 14.8 meters wide. Standard displacement - 2700 tons, full - up to 3200 tons. In terms of size and displacement, Project 22100 border patrol ships are larger than rank 2 multipurpose warships - Project 20380 corvettes (total displacement of 2200 tons), but they are inferior in displacement to modern Russian frigates of the far sea zone of projects 22350 (total displacement 5400 tons) and 11356 (full displacement of 4035 tons). The maximum speed of the PSKR project 22100 "Ocean" is 21 knots (approximately 39 km / h), the autonomy of navigation is 60 days. The maximum cruising range is 12,000 nautical miles. Estimated service life - up to 40 years.
Armament PSKR project 22100 "Ocean" is exclusively artillery and small arms. The main caliber and striking power of the ship is the 76, 2-mm universal artillery mount AK-176M, which allows you to hit surface and ground targets at a distance of 15.6 km, air targets at an altitude of 11.6 km. In this case, the maximum rate of fire of the installation is up to 120 rounds per minute. In addition, there are two large-caliber 14, 5-mm Vladimirov machine guns on board the border patrol ships of Project 22100, located on a special naval column-mounted machine-gun mount MTPU. Such machine guns can fight surface, coastal, airborne and lightly armored targets at a distance of up to 2000 meters. Also at the stern of the PSKR there is a helipad and a hangar, which are designed for takeoff and landing and storage of Ka-27PS helicopters; it is also possible to launch Gorizont G-Air S-100 drones from the ship.
Separately, it is worth noting the fact that in the terms of reference for the development of the ship, the possibility of installing strike missile weapons on board the ship was prescribed. According to the assurances of the chief designer of Almaz Central Design Bureau, Boris Leikis, this possibility has been preserved. In an interview with the Vesti-Tatarstan channel, Boris Leikis noted that if necessary, the PSKR could be converted into a missile strike ship in a short time.
The power plant of the first ship of the series was equipped with German MTU diesel engines. After the imposition of sanctions against Russia, the supply of engines was stopped. The second and third ships of project 22350 received domestic marine diesel engines produced by the Kolomna plant. In June 2019, in an interview with Russian media, the general director of the Zelenodolsk plant argued that the PSKR of project 22100 is already 100 percent made from components only of Russian origin. For example, in March 2019, news appeared that all serial ships of this project will receive telescopic gates for a domestic-made helicopter hangar.
