Domestic shipbuilding is in decline. It is annoying to hear such statements, although they are true. Russia positions itself as a developed power in the energy, economy, industry and other sectors. However, it seems that these are just words - in reality, the country is still a raw material appendage.
In accordance with the decree of the President of Russia, the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) was established in 2007. According to the official website, the main goal of its activities is to centralize a significant part of the Russian shipbuilding complex and coordinate its activities to meet the demand of both domestic and foreign customers.
Why is the construction of ships and vessels in the West and in the countries of Southeast Asia a profitable business, while in Russia it is unprofitable? Why has Russia not been able to move to market relations and occupy a worthy niche in the world shipbuilding in 20 years? For example, Vietnam in 2002 produced only 0.01% of the world shipbuilding volume, and by 2007 it had reached the level of 2.19%, surpassing the current volume of Russian civil shipbuilding by more than 20 times. USC planned to achieve approximately this level of the volume of world shipbuilding in the indefinite future.
Today, Russian ships are often built according to foreign projects for foreign customers. Moreover, sometimes only a case is created, and mechanisms, electronic stuffing on them are installed abroad. Domestic shipowners still prefer to place orders abroad, where they get quality ships faster and cheaper.
The process of forming the USC has been delayed, and there has been no progress in shipbuilding. Over the past six months, three interesting stories have been traced in the activities of the USC.
The first is an industrial design competition in shipbuilding. The requirements of this competition, organized by the USC, in the main nomination "External futuristic appearance of a corvette" were constantly softened. As a result, it was necessary to provide a sketch of the external appearance of the 21st century corvette. The published projects raise many questions, as their implementation requires colossal funds. The requirements for operation, load, stability, general arrangement, compatibility of weapons and devices, as well as many other things, which are taught, for example, in St. Petersburg Dzerzhinka or Korabelka, were not taken into account. Some projects were partially "licked" from foreign prototypes.
Shipbuilders are ready for innovations, but there are requirements that cannot be violated. Of course, there are cases when it was non-professionals who made the greatest inventions and discoveries. But let's not forget that designing a modern ship involves a trade-off between many conflicting requirements. On the one hand, the aggressive sea environment tends, at the slightest miscalculation of the shipbuilder or the crew's mistake, to turn, sink, crush the ship. On the other hand, a modern ship must be equipped with various technical systems, weapons, power, communications, surveillance, detection, protection … Specialists are needed to solve these problems, and most of the participants in the competition were amateurs in shipbuilding. However, the winners have been named, and there seem to be no professionals among them.
The second story is related to Finnish investments and orders. At the end of last year, a trilateral agreement was signed in the Kremlin between Sovcomflot, USC and STX Finland on the construction of two multifunctional icebreaking supply vessels in Finland. At the same time, not so long ago the St. Petersburg Severnaya Verf (SV) and the Baltic Shipyard (BZ) built supply vessels and turnkey diesel-electric icebreakers - which means that they are able to fulfill the order of STX Finland.
Why did the $ 200 million order go to another country? Most likely, the point is not only that two whales of the domestic shipbuilding industry (SV and BZ) are not part of the USC structure …
One of the directions spelled out in the Russian Maritime Doctrine is the development of shelf resources. For this, in addition to auxiliary vessels, drilling platforms, tankers and ice-going gas carriers, nuclear icebreakers will be needed. Already in this decade, the Russian nuclear fleet may only have one nuclear-powered icebreaker - "50 Years of Victory". The rest will be cut into metal.
Recently, shipbuilding circles have been actively discussing the issue of building a nuclear icebreaker in Russia, which can be put into serial production. At the same time, the possibility of building a series of nuclear icebreakers in Finland and Germany is being considered - this, in particular, is evidenced by the fact that USC has already bought out part of the assets of the Finnish shipyards.
The first Soviet atomic icebreaker "Lenin", which was the very first in the world, was built in Leningrad at the "Admiralty Shipyards", and the next eight - almost all at the BZ. Why is USC again trying to look for a solution not “here” but “there”? It is important to note that the head of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, being at the St. Petersburg plant, announced that, most likely, nuclear icebreakers should be built at this plant.
The third story is the creation of the Russian-French consortium OSK-DCNS and the supply of Mistral helicopter carriers for the Russian Navy.
The topic of Russia's purchase of Mistrals in France has been discussed for a very long time in the media and on the sidelines of shipbuilding enterprises. According to experts, there is no uniqueness and innovation in this project, and initially, probably, few people believed in its implementation. However, in the end, a competition was organized, it was necessary to sell helicopter carriers. USC and the French DCNS, ready to build them, have teamed up into a consortium - no one was surprised that it was he who won the tender.
As a result, Russia will receive from France only two corps of helicopter carriers with power plants and propellers. The price of each of the "Mistrals" will be approximately 600-800 million euros - without weapons and instruments. It is gratifying to note that on May 27 this year, at the end of the G8 summit in Deauville, the President of the Russian Federation announced that two of the same ships would be built in Russia. At the same time, equipping these ships with Russian equipment (helicopters and boats) will lead to the fact that the use of areas and volumes will be ineffective - after all, the project was developed according to the standards and sizes of French equipment. The issue of the subsequent purchase of helicopters and boats from France is brewing … It is also worth considering that these helicopter carriers are not designed for operation in the conditions of the Russian winter, which means that they will have to be used only in the corresponding latitudes.
From an operational point of view, ships that sharply contrast in their design characteristics, standards and even appearance will be something like "white crows" with dubious combat value.
Now the Ministry of Defense hardly finances the construction of the necessary military equipment, even corvettes.
Against this background, the proposed purchase of helicopter carriers, which will be made at the expense of taxpayers, looks very unsightly.
The USSR designed and built large surface ships, including classic helicopter carriers. Nevskoe PKB and Severnoye PKB are ready to design ships similar to Mistral, but adapted to operating conditions in Russia. There are underutilized factories in St. Petersburg, Severodvinsk and the Far East. And since Russia can design and build cruisers, nuclear-powered icebreakers and helicopter carriers, why buy them abroad?
Judging by the materials of the official website of USC, the corporation justifiably expresses its uncertainty in achieving "the desired economic effect from the consolidation of assets." I am glad that USC is concerned about its own future, although it would be better if its leaders took care of the development of the shipbuilding industry in Russia, as well as the welfare of workers and engineers of domestic shipyards.
By the way, in March of this year, an ice-class scientific expedition vessel “Akademik Tryoshnikov” was launched at JSC “Admiralteyskie Verfi” (part of the USC). This is the first vessel of this type under construction in Russia.
"Admiralty Shipyards" have always been among the first in the development of new technologies and the construction of complex ships and vessels. However, the fate of the oldest shipbuilding enterprise in Russia, founded by Peter the Great, was decided within the framework of last year's St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The Governor of St. Petersburg and local authorities actively support the transfer of the main facilities of the plant to Kotlin Island and the construction of a new shipyard there. In fact, transfer means liquidation.
The removal of capacities will be carried out under the pretext of building the Novo-Admiralteysky bridge between the island of the same name and Vasilievsky. However, it is obvious that the territory in the city center occupied by Admiralty Shipyards is attractive for investors - for example, with the aim of building luxury housing (as stated in official sources, the vacated territories will be used for the construction of residential, commercial and social facilities.).
USC promises to build a new modern shipyard on Kotlin Island by 2017. An alternative proposal of the ex-general director of the shipyards, Honorary Citizen of St. Petersburg Vladimir Alexandrov to build a tunnel instead of a bridge did not cause the proper reaction.
Why was the construction of a superyard in Primorsk not completed? Because the order book was not formed. But there will be no "serious" orders until a modern plant appears, which, in turn, needs to be built for a portfolio of orders. It turns out a vicious circle. There are fears that by 2017 the main part of the Admiralty Shipyards will be demolished, and the construction of the new plant will be slowed down due to the lack of a backlog of orders. Maybe USC sees a way out of this vicious circle?
