Our shipbuilding research centers and design bureaus have developed projects for a new aircraft carrier, destroyer and large landing ship, as well as a whole range of civilian marine equipment - from drilling ships to oil and gas platforms for working on the Arctic shelf. Their launch into production will make it possible to almost completely abandon imported analogs.
Three months ago, the Krylov State Scientific Center (KGNTs), the largest Russian research organization in the field of civil shipbuilding and military shipbuilding, changed its general director. The place of retired Anatoly Aleksashin was taken by Vladimir Nikitin, who until recently headed the Zvezdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk, where almost the entire submarine nuclear fleet of our country was created and repaired. Now the new head of the KGSC has to develop the existing scientific and technical groundwork and create a new one for the implementation of two state programs at once - military and civil, including for the development of the Arctic zone of Russia. And there is something to develop. Most recently, KGNTs completed the design of a shallow icebreaker and defended its technical design. Just the other day, the center received an export passport for another new development - an aircraft carrier with a displacement of almost 100 thousand tons, which India and China are already interested in. About what projects the Krylov Center is working on and what tasks it faces and our shipbuilding industry, Vladimir Nikitin told in an interview with "Expert".
General Director of KGNTs Vladimir Nikitin believes that the main problem of our shipbuilding industry is the lack of modern construction sites for large tankers and gas carriers
What tasks do the industry leaders set for you?
- The main task is to improve and develop scientific and technical groundwork in all the most important areas of military shipbuilding and shipbuilding. This is necessary in order to ensure the technical appearance of the naval weapons and naval equipment being created in our country at the highest world level. At the same time, it is also required to conduct a thorough and omnidirectional monitoring of scientific and technical areas in order not to miss anything significant and valuable. The solution of these problems is possible through the correct and optimal interaction of the scientific and technical council of our center with the leading enterprises of the industry.
- How will the development strategy of KGSC change?
- The strategy will not undergo fundamental changes. We, as before, will focus on forecasting the development trends of the world military shipbuilding and civil shipbuilding, create an advanced scientific and technical groundwork. Nevertheless, adjustments are possible and even necessary. For example, it is already clear that much more attention will have to be paid to such problems as full electric propulsion of ships, mathematical modeling using supercomputer technologies, an increase in the volume and number of research areas for new composite materials, as well as import substitution.
- What promising projects in military shipbuilding are currently being implemented by the KGNTs?
- Undoubtedly, the most important work in this area, carried out by our center in collaboration with other enterprises of the industry, is the preliminary design of multifunctional ships of the "aircraft carrier" and "destroyer" class. In terms of their main characteristics, they will not be inferior to the best foreign ships. For example, the aircraft carrier of project 23000E "Storm" with a displacement of 95-100 thousand tons will be equipped with an integrated combat control system. This ship is able to support the basing of a multipurpose air group, which includes up to 90 aircraft for various purposes, including attack fighters and helicopters. For their take-off, two springboards and two electromagnetic catapults are provided at once, and for landing - an aerofinisher. This was achieved, among other things, thanks to the special shape of the ship's hull. It is designed to reduce water resistance by up to 20 percent. At the same time, the takeoff of aircraft and helicopters on such a ship will be possible even in a storm.
As for the destroyer, we are talking about the project 23560E "Shkval". This ship with a displacement of 15-25 thousand tons will be capable of solving a wide range of combat missions, including strategic ones. For this, it is envisaged to equip it with a powerful complex of weapons for various purposes and the possibility of basing two multipurpose helicopters.
- When can we expect these ships to appear in metal? And what is the export potential of these projects?
- If a positive decision is made to include these ships in the shipbuilding program until 2050, they can be expected to be built by 2025–2030. They differ from foreign counterparts in the optimal body contour, which ensures a decrease in hydrodynamic resistance, the presence of a balanced fleet of aircraft, the original design of power plants and other systems. The new aircraft carrier differs fundamentally from previous domestic aircraft carrier ships. In fact, this is the first Russian classic aircraft carrier.
There are no technical obstacles for the construction of these ships. Domestic shipbuilding is practically ready for the implementation of these projects, there are no problems of import dependence in them. Their export potential is enormous. We can talk about the interest of at least four countries.
- In our Navy there are not only full-fledged aircraft carriers, but also large aircraft-carrying amphibious assault ships (BDK) such as the French "Mistrals", which France does not want to supply us in any way. Can we create them ourselves?
- This opinion is erroneous. Domestic military shipbuilding, in particular the Nevskoe PKB, has experience in designing such ships. Several such projects have been developed. Therefore, there are no difficulties in building such ships according to domestic projects. Without a doubt, our shipbuilding science and industry are able to design and build the most modern aircraft carriers, as well as ships of the Mistral type. Moreover, recently at the laying down of the Petr Morgunov large landing craft, the head of the naval shipbuilding department, Vladimir Tryapichnikov, bluntly said that in the next five years the construction of large amphibious assault ships of a new generation would be launched, in terms of displacement and combat capabilities many times superior to those already existing and currently under construction. Their appearance has already been formed. These ships will be capable of carrying a reinforced marine battalion and several helicopters for various purposes. So the new generation of our large amphibious assault ships will definitely surpass the French Mistrals. Our center, for its part, is ready to carry out an appropriate amount of scientific and experimental research.
- What are the main trends in the global military shipbuilding now?
- The main trends are based on the theory of the so-called network-centric wars at sea. They are well known and are associated with the design and construction of multifunctional, uniform combat platforms: surface and submarine. Another trend is the creation and adoption of a multitude of unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned underwater and surface vehicles, which can perform not only reconnaissance missions, but also carry various weapons.
- Now the Arctic has become a priority for the country's development. These are transport corridors like the Northern Sea Route and offshore hydrocarbon production. What vessels, platforms and similar equipment do we need to create in order to effectively develop the Arctic?
- Creation of appropriate marine equipment for the Arctic is one of the main directions of the state program "Development of shipbuilding and equipment for the development of shelf deposits in 2015–2030". The stage of offshore geological exploration in the Arctic seas requires the creation of geophysical vessels and exploration drilling equipment, adapted for operation during the extended navigation period. This is very important, since the ice window in the Arctic in a significant part of the promising license areas lasts from two to five months. The use of traditional seismic vessels providing 3D exploration using several streamers is, in principle, impossible in ice conditions. Therefore, it requires the development of exploration equipment that effectively works on the basis of alternative methods.
As for drilling vessels and platforms, it is necessary to ensure their operation during the period of ice melting and the beginning of freeze-up in order to complete the drilling of exploration wells to the required design marks during the field season. Further. Based on the results of geological exploration, oil and gas companies are moving to the construction and practical development of Arctic fields. This will require operational platforms and support vessels operating year-round. Taking into account significant differences in operating conditions (water depth, ice loads), the number of required standard sizes of offshore platforms and vessels serving them already at the initial stages of development is in the tens.
There are virtually no developments in the world of marine technology for work in such difficult conditions, which required us to solve complex scientific and technical problems practically from scratch. We have developed conceptual designs for vessels and other marine equipment for specific fields. For example, we have a project for a new drilling vessel with various types of power plants for operation in the Arctic in the deep waters of the continental shelf. It can operate in areas remote from supply bases. There are developments in the conceptual design of a jack-up floating drilling rig for drilling on shallow-water shelf, where the depth ranges from three to 21 meters. It is supposed to be used during the ice-free period in the southeastern part of the Pechora Sea, in the Kara Sea near the Yamal Peninsula and in the Ob-Taz Bay. We also have a project of an air cushion drilling rig for drilling at a depth of 3.5 kilometers.
- So you don't have to worry about drilling in the Arctic. And what about the transportation of hydrocarbons?
- The solution to the transport problem provides for the creation of marine transport and technological systems for the export of products from offshore and onshore Arctic oil and gas fields. The basis of such systems are large-capacity vessels - tankers and gas carriers, as well as Arctic icebreakers, which ensure uninterrupted year-round pilotage of such vessels. We have begun the first stages of designing new nuclear-powered icebreakers - an offshore one, which ensures the operation of offshore fields located in severe ice conditions of shallow water, and an icebreaker-leader with a capacity of over 110 megawatts, intended for escorting ships in the most difficult ice conditions in the eastern sector of the Arctic. All this creates good preconditions for the implementation of a comprehensive plan for the development of the Northern Sea Route.
As for the practical development of the Arctic zone of our country, including transit along the Northern Sea Route, it will require the creation of an extensive infrastructure, providing for the construction of structures for hydrometeorological, navigation, hydrographic, emergency rescue and other support. We are now commissioning a landscape wind tunnel, which will allow solving the problems of developing the architecture of complex offshore structures installed on the shelf, optimizing the location of berths and other hydraulic structures of Arctic ports and fleet bases at a qualitatively new level. Thus, all the necessary conditions will be created for the effective use of the unique logistic and transport advantages of the shortest sea route connecting Europe and Asia.
- What marine equipment for the Arctic can we develop and make at the global level? And where do we need to replace imports in the first place?
- Sophisticated marine equipment for Arctic applications (icebreakers, research vessels for ice navigation, ice-resistant offshore platforms of various types) is a priority direction in the development of domestic shipbuilding. And in this segment of the world market, Russia has every chance to take a leading position. First, it meets the priority needs of our country. Secondly, it is here that we have created a leading scientific and technical groundwork, developed a number of "ice" technologies that have no analogues in the world. Thirdly, the construction of complex, highly equipment-rich ships and marine equipment is most consistent with the historically established way of domestic shipbuilding plants. No country in the world has an atomic civilian fleet. Our life almost sixty years ago forced us to begin the development of atomic civil shipbuilding and shipping. The entire cycle of nuclear power on board the Russian industry does completely: reactors, turbines, generators, cruise motors. And these products are quite competitive. For example, TsNII SET, a branch of the Krylov Scientific Center, won the German concern Siemens in the tender for the supply of an electric propulsion system worth over a billion rubles for a new nuclear icebreaker. At the same time, we feel a lack of competence in the design and construction of offshore technological complexes for preliminary and deep processing of mined resources, in the construction of high-tech transport vessels. Ship engineering remains a bottleneck. Import substitution is also needed in the field of ship equipment, ship power engineering, and civil instrument making.
But the main barrier preventing us from creating supertankers and gas carriers is the lack of construction sites in Russia. That is, large shipyards with dry docks are over 60 meters wide and over 300 meters long
- Indeed, the lack of modern building sites is the main problem of the industry. But she is being resolved. We hope for the earliest completion of the construction of the new Zvezda shipyard in the Far East, where, among other things, large tankers will be built. Another important point is the need for advanced technological re-equipment of the industry, including the shipbuilding enterprises of St. Petersburg. If the modernization of Severnaya Verf is carried out and a large dry dock is built, then the possibilities of our shipbuilding industry to create large offshore facilities will significantly increase.
