Russia Launches One of a Kind ‘Combat Icebreaker’ Laden With Anti-Ship Missiles
Testing Russia with a 'Freedom of Navigation Operation' through its Arctic to become an even worse idea by 2021
The Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg has launched an icebreaking rescue tug equipped with cruise missiles and a deck gun – a multi-mission “combat icebreaker” designed to defend Russian interests in the high Arctic.
The future Ivan Papanin “combines the functions of a tugboat, patrol, icebreaker and a scientific vessel. It can solve an unlimited number of different tasks and, thanks to the inherent design solutions, can work in the Arctic region as efficiently as possible,” said United Shipbuilding Corporation chairman Georgy Poltavchenko, speaking to Russian media.
The Papanin is envisioned as Russia’s answer to the Norwegian Coast Guard’s Svalbard-class icebreaking rescue tug, which mounts one deck gun and can carry a small air-defense system. However, Papanin is being built as a naval vessel, and it is fitted out accordingly: with eight Kalibr-NK cruise missiles, Papanin will have an over-the-horizon anti-surface / land-attack capability, something more commonly associated with a frigate or a destroyer than a patrol boat.
Papanin is designed to break ice up to about five feet thick, about the same specification as the U.S. Coast Guard medium icebreaker Healy. She is also fitted with a hangar for one helicopter and a launch davit for two high-speed patrol boats.
The Papanin is slated for delivery in 2021. A second vessel in the class, the future Nikolay Zubov, is scheduled for delivery in 2024. The vessels add to Russia’s growing inventory of icebreakers, already the largest in the world. At present, Russia operates 46 icebreaking ships (leaving aside icebreaking cargo vessels). Three new nuclear-powered heavy icebreakers, the Arktika-class ships, are slated for delivery over the next several years.
Source: The Maritime Executive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpJGV8s1kng
Those Russians are so very ingenious! Congrats on the new combat/icebreaker..it’s a
beauty! And it will do the job it is intended for so well….quite the impressive warning.
Golly, something is wrong with me. I like Russia. I think that Putin is a cool dude. He doesn’t have his nose up Netanyahu’s arse. Oh my oh my, what should I do. I am an incorrigible. I can never sing hatikvah as my national anthem. I incorrigibly believe that I have the right to criticize and reject zio-neo-con plotters schemers oppressors murderers and snipers. In short; the zio-masters of my tax dollars, and my destiny against whom I struggle and revolt.
It’s an impressive original concept. And so suited to Russia’s needs.