The III international conference “The Development of the Icebreaker and Auxiliary Fleet” was held in Saint Petersburg on September 16, 2019 on the zero day of the major sectoral exhibition “NEVA-2019”. Deputy General Director for Fleet Vasily Strugov spoke about the construction and use of the FSUE “Rosmorport” icebreaker fleet.

At present, FSUE “Rosmorport” possesses the world’s largest icebreaker fleet – it has 36 vessels. The stage of the fleet’s active expansion started in 2008-2009 with the construction of the Moskva and the Saint Petersburg icebreakers. The positive experience of operation of these two vessels was taken into account while building a series of three icebreakers of upgraded Project 21900M such as the Vladivostok, the Murmansk and the Novorossiysk. The key particulars of the icebreakers are their increased capacity of 18 MW, the higher degree of automation and the computer integrated system. For the first time in Russia full revolving swinging propellers were used on linear icebreakers.

This year a contract is planned to be signed to build a linear diesel-electric icebreaker with the capacity of 18 MW of Icebreaker7 Class of Project 21900M2. The construction of the icebreaker is based on Project 21900M; vessels of this project proved themselves in different conditions, including in Arctic seas by showing their high effectiveness and reliability.

Special attention was paid to the Viktor Chernomyrdin linear diesel-electric icebreaker with the capacity of 25 MW of Project 22600. “This is the most powerful icebreaker, which will be used by our enterprise and in the whole world. The Admiralty Yards confirmed that in late September we will be able to start running trials,” Strugov said. The ice trials of the icebreaker are planned to take place in the Kara Sea in March-April 2020 upon the presence of the ice with the necessary particularities for the trials.

Under the Comprehensive plan for modernizing and expanding the truck infrastructure, nine icebreakers are expected to be built till 2024.

The III international conference “The Development of the Icebreaker and Auxiliary Fleet” was organized by the PortNews news analytical agency to discuss topical issues of the industry functioning. Among issues are the construction of modern multifunctional vessels of the auxiliary and technical fleets, new electronic technologies and the development of the service market of the auxiliary fleet. The event involved key operators of the icebreaker, towing, bunker, emergency, dredging and auxiliary cruise fleet, foreign and Russian shipbuilding companies, designers, stevedoring companies and state regulatory authorities.