FEATURE ONE:

FACING INDIA

READ INSIDE:«LESSONS WE LEARNED...»Frigates for India: experience to overcome difficulties

20121(9)

NORTHERN HEART OF VIKRAMADITYAPhases of an unprecedented project

On March, 1988, state company “Sudoexport”is founded on the basis of the foreign trade arm of the Shipbuilding Industry Ministry of the USSR established in 1968 (Minsudprom). In accordance with Presidential Order No. 696 of June 9, 2010 “On the development of “United Shipbuilding Corporation’’, “Sudoexport” is integrated in United Shipbuilding Corporation. The order specifies that foreign trade operations on exporting and importing ships and other vessels, ship and other equipment, parts and materials, and leasing, are designated as priority areas.“Sudoexport” acts as a middleman for the Russian shipbuilding industry working with foreign clients and works on importing equipment and parts for shipbuilding enterprises, as well as implementing in Russia advanced foreign and domestic technologies for the shipbuilding industry.In its many years of experience, “Sudoexport” has earned a reputation as a reliable partner for many successful shipbuilding and repair factories, as well as for shipping companies from India, Germany, Norway, Bulgaria, Vietnam, Egypt, and other countries. We aim to maintain harmonious relations with our clients, keeping them as transparent and as reliable as possible.

11, Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya123242, Moscow, RussiaTel.: +7 (495) 727 30 52Fax: +7 (495) 727 30 53E-mail: info@sudoexport.ruwww.sudoexport.com

Dear readers! This issue of the corporate magazine of the United Ship-

building Corporation (USC) is mostly focused on the themes of Russian-Indian cooperation in the naval sphere. It is symbolic that it is issued on the eve of an important event — 50th anni-versary of the beginning of the military and technical coopera-tion between India and the USSR — which throughout decades became a major factor of not only the world arms market, but also of the global politics.

Fruitful military and technical cooperation of our countries that had time and again played an important role in preventing threats and effective resolution of armed conflicts acquired a new quality in early ХХI century. A high degree of mutual un-derstanding that had formed during years of close partnership, on the working level, too, and mutual trust allow Russia and India to change the previous cooperation in the format buyer-seller, customer-manufacturer in favour of joint development of advanced weapons and military equipment.

This particular format of modern privileged partnership gives our countries the synergy able to provide a breakthrough to the leading positions in a number of areas of military and technical cooperation, including joint design and production of effective naval hardware, in order to meet the requirements of the national armed forces, as well as for successful competition on the world market.

We at USC are sure that further development of the strategic partnership relations between our nations, including the naval shipbuilding sphere, will make it possible to protect the national sovereignty and implement national interests of India and Rus-sia in the ХХI century in the most efficient and mutually ben-eficially manner.

Roman Trotsenko

President, United Shipbuilding Corporation

CONTENT

«USC. STRENGTH AND POWER AT SEA» magazine №1(9) 2012Published by USC JSС

President Roman Trotsenko

Address 11/1 Sadovaya-Kudrinskaya, Moscow,123242 RussiaTel.: +7 (495) 617-33 00Fax: +7 (495) 617-34 00

e-mail: info@oaoosk.ruwebsite: www.oaoosk.ru

40 34

14 48

4_ NEWS

10_ SHARING THE SAME GOALS

14_INDISSOLUBLE UNION

20_ «LESSONS WE LEARNED...»

26_ SUDOEXPORT — INDIA: RELIABLE PARTNERSHIP

27_ FORECAST: NO CALM

34_ NORTHERN HEART OF VIKRAMADITYA

37_ SCHOOL OF THE SEA WOLF

40_ PARTNERSHIP FOR FRIENDSHIP’S SAKE

48_ THUNDERBOLTS FOR THE COUNTRY OF GODS

52_ LOOKING DEEP

USC AND MMK BECAME PARTNERS MOSCOW, 29 November 2011. JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) and JSC Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) signed a memorandum of strategic cooperation.

The parties agreed to cooperate in science and technology on the existing and new types of products in ship-building, as well as optimize the chains to supply steel products from the MMK site to USC enterprises.«As you know, the shipbuilding indus-try is perhaps the most metal-intensive sector. In this regard, the United Ship-building Corporation believes that the strategic cooperation between Russian shipbuilders and the Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works will promote healthy com-petition in the domestic ship’s steel market, which is espe-cially important in conditions when shipbuilding orders have been steadily growing in Russia,» - said Roman Trotsenko, President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation. In turn, Boris Dubrovsky, Director General of Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works, said, «Possessing the most modern plate roll-ing processes at its Mill 5000 facility, MMK intends to devel-op the delivery market for shipbuilders. Such an opportunity is available now, and we are pleased with the agreements reached with USC. MMK is able to fully meet the needs of the Russian shipbuilding industry, which will soon become the locomotive of the domestic economy.”

INDIA: A NEW STAGE IN SHIPBUILDING DEVELOPMENT NEW DELHI, 30 November 2011 (ARMS-TASS). India is considering the development of an air-independent propul-sion (AIP) unit for conventional submarines (SSK).

The proposal to develop an AIP unit was initiated by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) as part of the efforts to look for technologies reducing vul-nerability of the Indian Navy’s SSK fleet.The Naval Material Research Laboratory, which is part of DRDO, is working on the technology demonstration project «Ground AIP Prototype Development» for the main power plant of the SSK.The vulnerability of the SSK can be reduced through extend-ing the periods when the boat stays submerged. Electric diesel generators of the SSK use the storage batteries to drive the propulsion system in submerged mode. To charge the batteries, a boat needs to surface. In case of AIP, the batteries can be charged without surfacing.The ground AIP prototype may be demonstrated in India by 2015.

SPAIN LOBBYING WARSHIP DELIVERY TO BRAZIL 29 November 2011 (CAWAT). Executive director of Spanish shipbuilder Navantia Louis Cacho completed his visit to Bra-zil, during which he held talks with the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Navy and defense industry of-ficials of the largest South American state to support the pro-posal in the framework of PROSUPER (Programa de Obtencao de Meios de Superficie) program.

In addition, the CEO of Navantia met with the Spanish Ambas-sador to Brazil to coordinate the efforts supporting the com-pany’s proposals with the diplomatic mission.It should be recalled that in the first phase of the PROSUPER program, Brazil seeking to increase the capabilities to protect its offshore oil fields plans to acquire 11 combatant ships — five 6000-ton frigates, five 1800-ton offshore patrol vessels and one replenishment oiler (AOR) to be built by the winner of the tender in the country in conjunction with Brazilian companies.According to Navantia, its proposal features two major ben-efits: the availability of proven projects for the three classes of ships (frigate, POV and AOR ship) required for the Brazilian Navy, as well as vast experience in transfer of the construc-tion technologies to a number of countries, including Australia, India and Norway.Navantia has already secured the full support of the project from Spain’s Government, Ministry of Defense, and Navy. The obligations of the parties were fixed in the Memorandum of Understanding signed in December 2010 by the Brazilian and Spanish Ministries of Defense.

BALTIC SHIPYARD TO OPERATE IN FULL FORCE 2 December 2011 (RF Prime Minister’s website). Following a meeting held at the Baltic Shipyard (Baltiysky Zavod) in

St. Petersburg, the following documents were signed in the presence of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:

— a contract to build a 25-MW ice-breaker (completion date: October 2015);

— contracts to build three 16-MW ice-breakers (completion dates: May, August and October 2015);

— a subcontract to build a 25-MW ice-breaker with the completion date set at October 2015;

— an agreement on preparations for the construction of a series of 60-MW nuclear-powered ice-breakers;

— an agreement on the use of Baltic Shipyard’s capacities to build the floating hull parts for two Mistral assault landing ships.

RUSSIAN-BUILT FRIGATE FOR INDIAN NAVY COMPLETED TRIALS MOSCOW, 7 December 2011 (RIA Novosti). The first of the three frigates ordered by the Indian Navy has successfully passed the final trials before its handover to the Indian side.

«In fact, the final testing phase of the Project 11356 frigate Teg (Saber) has finished. Next, the process of delivery and accept-ance of the first of three frigates by the Indian side will be-gin,»- said Sergei Mikhailov, spokesman for the Yantar Baltic Shipyard. According to him, the frigate is to be handed over to the Indian Navy in April next year.The contract to build the second batch of the three frigates was signed on 14 July 2007 in New Delhi. Under the first con-tract signed in 1997, frigates Tabar (Hatchet), Trishul (Trident) and Talvar (Sword) were constructed and handed over to the Indian Navy.The frigates under construction at Yantar will almost not dif-fer in their basic characteristics from those received by India earlier. Only the armament mix of the ships was modified. In particular, they will be armed with the Brahmos supersonic cruise missile with a range of 300 kilometers.

VIETNAM WILL GET ANOTHER TWO GEPARDS 7 December 2011 (CAWAT). Vietnam will take delivery of additional two Project Gepard 3.9 frigates, according to Sergei Rudenko, Deputy Director for Ex-port Activities at the Zelenodolsk Shipyard named after Gorky. As to armaments for the two new frigates, the emphasis will be placed on ASW capabilities.The Vietnamese side has long expressed its intention to ac-quire two more similar ships, and

this involved their license construction at one of the domes-tic shipyards.The details of the signed contract have not yet been dis-closed.The delivery of the frigates is the biggest joint project be-tween Russia and Vietnam in the segment of major surface ships. In 2006, Rosoboronexport signed a US$ 350 million contract with the Vietnamese Navy to supply two Project 11661 Gepard-3.9 frigates. The developer of the project is the Zelenodolsk PKB Design Bureau, while the manufacturing contractor is JSC Zelenodolsk Shipyard.The modified version of the Project 11661 Gepard-3.9 has de-rived from the Tatarstan patrol ship. The Vietnamese Gepard ship incorporates stealth technology. It is armed with the Palma-SU missile/gun air defense system with a new elec-tro-optical guidance system and the Uran missile system.By now, both the Project 11661 Gepard-3.9 frigates have been delivered to the Vietnamese Navy.

NEWS

Project 11661 frigates are designed to search, detect and destroy surface, underwater and air targets, as well as handle escort and patrol missions.The displacement of the ships is 2100 tons, speed — 28 knots, sea crossing endurance — 20 days. Their arma-ment suite includes two Uran-E quad ASM launchers, a 76mm AK-176M artillery gun, two 30mm AK-630M CIWS systems and 533mm torpedo tubes. Ka-28 or Ka-31 heli-copters can be based on the frigate.

USC №1(9), 2012 54 USC №1(9), 2012

AUSTRALIA TO SPEND 30 YEARS TO DEVELOP NEW SUBMARINES 14 December 2011 (Lenta.Ru). Australia’s Department of Defense has announced a tender for the development and delivery of 12 new sub-marines. Invitations to bid were sent to French company DCNS, which produces Scorpene type submarines, Spanish Navantia manufactur-ing Type S-80 ships, and German HDW, which has developed Type 212 and Type 214 submarines. The estimated project period is 30 years.

The specific parameters of the new submarine program for the Royal Australian Navy have not yet been determined. According to Jason Clare, the Minister responsible for material support of the Australian armed forces, the project will involve hundreds of companies and thousands of workers. «Foreign companies possess some important know how, while other knowledge we need to get ourselves. It is time to develop a plan that will allow us to acquire the necessary skills to design and build submarines,» — said Clare.Currently, six Collins-class diesel-electric submarines are in service with the Royal Australian Navy. They entered service between 1996 and 2003.In 2009, Australia launched a large-scale rearmament program esti-mated at US$ 70 billion. These funds will be spent in the next 20 years to build and purchase new equipment for land, air and naval forces.

CHINEESE NAVY’S AIRCRAFT CARRIER REFITTED FROM VARYAG BEGAN TRIALS HONG KONG, 22 December 2011 (ARMS-TASS). A Chinese aircraft carrier, built around the ex-Soviet heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Varyag, headed out to the Yellow Sea for a third nine-day test voyage.

The previous testing phase lasted from 29 November to 11 De-cember. According to sources, that voyage included training exercises involving J-15 (Jian-15) fighters. They practiced interaction with the aircraft carrier, but did not have the tech-nical ability to land on the deck due to lack of arresters. Design and production of this component is a very challenging task, while, according to reports, China’s attempts to purchase the arresting gears abroad, including in Russia, have failed.This first aircraft carrier in China was built on the basis of the Varyag heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser purchased from Ukraine in 1998 at a price of scrap metal. This ship will be sup-posedly used by the Chinese Navy primarily for testing and naval pilot training.

RUSSIA’S ARMS EXPORTS REACHED US$ 12 BILLION25 January 2012 (Lenta.Ru). Russia’s arms exports in 2011 amounted to around US$ 12 billion, according to Rostekh-nologii State Corporation Director General Sergei Chemezov. He said that defense deliveries effected through Rosoboro-nexport last year amounted to US$ 10.7 billion. «The figure for this year will be over 12 billion. This is definitely,»- said Chemezov, adding that such a forecast helps determine the current amount of the export portfolio.

At present, the book of export orders for Russian military equipment is estimated at US$ 30-35 billion. «We have ac-cumulated a sufficient reserve and it actually does not decrease. There are some variations: it usually decreases at the end of the year and increases again in the beginning of the year. But in general the trend is positive,»- said Chem-ezov.Russia currently ranks second in the world arms export sales behind the United States. The US DOD Defense Security Co-operation Agency (DSCA) announced in early December 2011 that the US arms exports in 2011 totaled US$ 34.8 billion.

THAILAND IS READY TO BUY SSK SUBMARINES26 January 2012 (CAWAT). A new Thai defense minister, Air Chief Marshal Sukumpol Suwanatat, announced his inten-tion to continue discussions with the Government on the need to purchase submarines.

Speaking in his office on 24 January, the minister said he plans to resume a number of unrealized projects, including the purchase of diesel-electric submarines (SSK). Accord-ing to foreign media, Navy Commander Admiral Surasak Runroengrom will deliver a new request to the Government during the next month. He will insist on the purchase of diesel-electric submarines in connection with an increased number of submarines in service with the Southeast Asian Navies. In particular, in December 2011, Indonesia signed a contract to buy three Type 209 SSKs from the Republic of Korea. Neighboring Cambodia, too, has announced its intention to acquire submarines.The Royal Thai Navy Command has been seeking to adopt submarines over the past 15 years, but the program has not yet been implemented, due to lack of necessary funds. The Gov-

ernment first approved the ac-quisition of SSKs worth US$ 800 million in 1995. The Navy chose Gotland class submarines from Swedish Kokums, but the project was canceled in 1996 due to the Asian economic crisis.In early 2011 the Thai Navy Com-mand announced its plans to ac-quire six Type 206A submarines

USC AND ARCTIC UNIVERSITY TO SET UP A NEW INSTITUTE

12 December 2011 (REGNUM). The Northern (Arctic) Federal University (NArFU) and the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) have signed an agreement to establish the Shipbuilding and Arctic Marine Engineering Institute.

According to NArFU’s press service, the new higher educational institute will be set up in Severodvinsk on the basis of Sevmashvtuz Technical College, which will join the NARFU by May 2012.USC will establish three training classes on shipbuilding specialties on the basis of the NArFU. The agreement provides for several areas of cooperation - in particular, establishing a system for monitoring USC enterprises’ needs in personnel training, retraining and professional development; developing a vocational guidance system for youth, including the promotion of shipbuilding specialties, establishing technical creativity circles, holding contests on shipbuilding topics; developing a targeted personnel contract training and retraining system; educational program updating and development; NArFU training facilities development; developing a system of the NArFU’s basic chairs and training centers at USC enterprises.

NEWS

USC №1(9), 2012 76 USC №1(9), 2012

from the German Navy. The cost of the delivery is estimated at 5.5-7.7 billion baht, according to different sources. The procurement of submarines from a foreign Navy, according to the Thai naval officials, is the most rational solution. However, these plans did not receive government support. Later, the Navy added their request by including information about the planned timing and operating cost of submarines, their support opportunities, as well as the comparative costs when buying new SSKs from South Korea and France.

DCNS INDIA DELIVERS FIRST INDIAN-MADE EQUIPMENT TO FIT SCORPENE CONVENTIONAL PROPULSION SUBMARINE 01 March 2012 (TsAMTO). DCNS has announced that the delivery of onboard equipment to fit submarines being built under the Project 75 programme has been performed by the DCNS India company on schedule.

Mazagon Dock Ltd. has taken the delivery. The Indian government and French and Indian companies signed initial contracts for six Scorpene-type conventional-propulsion submarines, valued at a total of 187.98 billion ru-pees, in October 2005. The submarines are being built by Mazagon Dock Ltd. with DCNS’s participation under a technology transfer agreement. In June 2011, DCNS India awarded Flash Forge India Pvt. Ltd. a contract providing for the transfer of know-how and provi-sion of technical assistance in manufacturing equipment designed to equip Scorpene submarines.

At present, DCNS and Mazagon Dock Ltd. are certificating other Indian companies for supplying equipment needed for construction of the conventional submarines.

INDONESIAN NAVY WILLING TO BUY F-2000 FRIGATES REJECTED BY BRUNEI 01 March 2012. (TsAMTO). The Indonesian Navy has request-ed approval by the parliament’s lower house for acquisition of three Brunei-type F-2000 light frigates built by BAE Systems for the Bruneian Navy but rejected by the customer.

The request was submitted to the parliament by Malaysian CNO Adm. Soeparno on 29 February. The ships have been of-fered to the Indonesia Navy at €296 million (about $380 million), which is reasonable enough compared to their initial price. Another interested customer is Malaysia.

The contract for three frigates for the Bruneian Navy was signed in January 1998. The three ships worth £750 million ($1.5 billion) were slated for delivery on 2004. However, the Bruneian government refused to field them and contracted the Lurs-sen company to sell them to some-body else. The ships were mothballed at Bar-row, the UK, about five years ago. The media used to speculate that the Algerian or UAE navies could buy

them, but their guesswork proved not to be the fact later on. British firm James Fisher Defence landed a contract for main-taining the mothballed ships. Rotating crews would take them out of the dock periodically to keep their propulsion plants in good running order.

NEWS

Multipurpose patrol ship (corvette), project 20382 «Тigr»

PROJECT VIEW

The programme, providing for the annual deliveries of a non-nuclear submarine to the Indian Navy starting from 2012, is almost three years behind schedule. According to Defence Minister A.K. Antony, the reason for the slip-page behind schedule is the complexity of the technol-ogy transfer, the need of beefing up the Mazagon Dock Ltd. shipyard’s infrastructure and problems with certain material and equipment. Mazagon Dock Ltd will be able to male more than one conventional-propulsion submarine a year in the future owing to the modernisation of the infrastructure. According to current estimates, the first Scorpene sub-marine will enter service with the Indian Navy in 2015, with the rest to follow suit between 2016 and 2018.

The mainstay of the F-2000 frigate’s weapons suite is eight MM-40 Block II Exocet antiship missiles with a range of 70 km, 16 Sea Wolf surface-to-air missiles, an OTO Melara 76-mm Super Rapid automatic gun, two 30-mm REMSIG rapid-fire guns and two 324-mm triple-tube torpedo launchers.

8 USC №1(9), 2012

r. Ponomaryov, would you characterize Indo-Russian defense technology partnership as fruitful?

— Indeed, the Soviet military technologies offered to India used to be the backbone of the South Asian country’s national defense, and the relations did not become less fruitful after the USSR disintegration. The truth is that India has never lodged any claims or complaints about the quality of Russian military hardware, but always admitted its reliability. Importantly, speaking at the 8th plenary meeting of the Russian-Indian intergovernmental commission for military-technical cooperation, India’s Defense Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony hailed the long-term friendship and business partnership with Russia. Moreover, country’s military experts have

repeatedly emphasized the advantages of dealing with Russia on defense technologies, which, apart from being superb in terms of performance in combat and reliability in adverse climatic condi-tions, are offered at most luring price. In addition, our Indian partners admire the high level of Rus-sian weapons’ adjustability to technical require-ments of their country, and praise Russia for its willingness to share its sensitive technologies and launch joint ventures in the area of military tech-nologies.

— What are the main phases of this cooperation? And what joint projects would you call unique?

— For forty years of partnership Russia pro-vided India’s military arms and services with the best of the best weapons and materiel, including

fighter jets, helicopters, main battle tanks, air de-fense systems, artillery systems, naval and other hardware.

Speaking about naval technologies, the coopera-tion can be traced back to the middle of the past century. Our relations were never static: the part-nership was developing dynamically from ordinary supplies of single pieces of equipment at the begin-ning through technology transfer to joint ship de-velopment and production at India’s shipyards. The cooperation flourished in 1970s, when the USSR supplied its cutting-edge and reliable Project 205 guided missile boats, Project 159 frigates and Pro-ject 641 submarines, which became the mainstay of the Indian Navy’s combat power.

The golden age of our cooperation was 1980s. Back then the Soviet Union delivered Project 1234 and Project 1241 Molniya (Nato Tarantul class) corvettes, and Project 61 large ASW destroyers. The latter is what I would like to call unique, for it was the first time ever that Russia developed and built a warship displacing over 5,000 tons for a foreign customer. This signaled the start of a new phase in the military technical cooperation of Russia with other nations, its main idea being to offer customized solutions to defense technology partners.

— Is it all same as that now?

— More than that. Our partnership evolved to a new quality level in conjunction with the evolution of the Indian shipbuilding industry and the estab-lishment of Indian production and research and development sites with broad participation of the Russian military industrial complex.

The first to break the ice of Indo-Russian coop-eration in technology transfer was the St. Peters-burg-based design bureau Almaz, whose specialists were at the roots of the first-in-the-batch Vibhuti speedboat produced at Mazagon Dock Ltd in Bom-bay, controlling all key stages of its production and sea tests. Shortly thereafter, the Severnoye design bureau joined efforts with Indian shipbuilders over Project 15 and Project 25, thus offering invaluable experience to Indian partners, who used it properly in fulfillment of other priority national programs later on.

Presently Russian shipbuilders are involved in a number of India’s Projects. A positive result of the cooperation with Indian shipbuilders consists in

the development of the combat information and control system for Project 17. This is entirely a new-generation system, enabling the operator to exercise full command and control of not only one ship, but the whole battle group.

Russian shipyard services remain highly in demand, too. For instance, the United Shipbuild-ing Corporation’s JSC PO Sevmash is in the final phase of the overhaul and reconstruction pro-ject of the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier, while JSC Shipyard Yantar is building three Project 11356 frigates for the Indian customer. At the same time, JSC SC Zvyozdochka is involved in the upgrade of the Project 877 EKM diesel submarine upgrade.

— What can USC offer to the Indian Navy in future?

— Many things. The first is a joint venture to provide maintenance of already shipped naval equipment through the whole lifecycle. Secondly, UCS is willing to engage in joint development and production of new combat and auxiliary ships. Noteworthy, there are lots of plans for a few years to come, with active efforts aimed at the participa-tion in new tenders.

We also have plans to expand our partnership on submarines. We also bid with our latest project Amur 1650 in the Indian Navy competition for the construction of six Project 75 (I) subs. Our sub-mersible has a real formidable, but well-balanced set of weapons, which includes antiship missiles with salvo launch capability. Importantly, the submarine is deadly effective in attacking ground targets and installations by long-range cruise mis-siles - an entirely new mission for a non-nuclear sub. Apart from that, the central design bureau for marine engineering Rubin has developed and is finishing the bench trials of a state-of-the-art air-independent power plant with diesel fuel reform-ing, which may eventually be selected to propel Amur-1650. It is not ruled out that the engine program could go well in India, with Russian spe-cialists involved.

In summary, I would like to say that today, de-spite the changes on the global geopolitical arena, Russian-Indian relationship is developing in a con-structive way, and, I am sure, will move further on in the interests of both nations.

The largest nation in South Asia, India has always been one of Russia’s key partners as far as military technology is concerned. Igor PONOMARYOV, the director for foreign economic activities at JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation, comments on current affairs and company’s plans of joint research, development and construction of combat ships for the Indian Navy.

SHARING THE SAME GOALSIndo-Russian cooperation in naval equipment: past, present, future

1980s saw the start of a new phase in the military technical cooperation of Russia with other nations, its main idea being to offer customized solutions to defense technology partners

USC is offering India a revolutionary diesel submarine Amur 1650, which ranks second to none in the world as far as some most critical characteristics are concerned

-M

PRIORITIES

USC №1(9), 2012 1110 USC №1(9), 2012

NORTH-EASTERN REPAIR CENTER

ZVEZDA FAR-EASTERN YARD ZVEZDA-DSME

NIKOLAEVSK-on-AMUR SHIPYARD

AMUR SHIPBUILDING PLANT

179 SHIP REPAIR YARD KHABAROVSK SHIPBUILDING YARD KHABAROVSK YARD n.a. A.M.GORKIY

SAMUSKY SHIPBUILDING AND SHIP REPAIR YARD

NPO VINT MOSCOW SHIPBUILDING AND SHIP REPAIR YARD

YANTAR SHIPYARD

33 SHIP REPAIR YARD

SVETLOVSKOYE ENTERPRISE ERA

NEVSKOYE DESIGN BUREAU SEVERNOYE DESIGN BUREAU MALACHITE DESIGN BUREAU ICEBERG DESIGN BUREAU RUBIN DESIGN BUREAU ALMAZ DESIGN BUREAU SREDNE-NEVSKY SHIPBUILDING PLANT KRONDSHTADSKY MARINE PLANT ADMIRALTY SHIPYARDS SEVERNAYA VERF SHIPYARD BALTIYSKY SHIPBUILDING PLANT PROLETARSKY PLANT

ENTERPRISES OF THE UNITED SHIPBUILDING CORPORATION

THE ENTERPRISES INTEGRATED INTO THE UNITED SHIPBUILDING CORPORATION ARELOCATED AT ALL BIG PORTS AND TRANSPORTATION HUBS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION -– FROM KALININGRAD TO VLADIVOSTOK, FROM SEVERODVINSK TO ASTRAKHAN

DESIGN BUREAUS

ENTERPRISES

ZELENODOLSK DESIGN BUREAU

ALEXEEV CENTRAL HYDROFOIL DESIGN BUREAU DESIGN BUREAU «VYMPEL» KRASNOYE SORMOVO SHIPYARD ZNT YARD

RUBIN-SEVER DESIGN BUREAU ONEGA R&D TECHNOLOGICAL AND DESIGN BUREAU ZVYOZDOCHKA SHIP REPAIR CENTER PO SEVMASH NORTHERN PRODUCTION ASSOCIATION ARKTIKA

NERPA SHIP REPAIR YARD

35 SHIP REPAIR YARD 10 SHIP REPAIR YARD 82 SHIP REPAIR YARD BASE FOR FLEET TECHNICAL MAINTENANCE

DESIGN BUREAU «ASTRAMARIN» LOTOS SHIPYARD KARL MARX SHIPYARD ASTRAKHAN SHIP REPAIR YARD ASTRAKHAN SHIPBUILDING PRODUCTION ASSOCIATION

KRIUSHINSKY SHIPBUILDING AND SHIP REPAIR YARD

NOVOROSSIYSK SHIP REPAIR YARD

TUAPSINSKY SHIP REPAIR YARD

NIZHNIY NOVGOROD

TOMSK

ZELENODOLSK

ULYANOVSKMOSCOW

SAINT-PETERSBURG

SEVERODVINSK

ARKHANGELSK

SNEZNOGORSK

MURMANSK

BALTIYSKSVETLY

KALININGRAD

VILYUCHINSK

NIKOLAEVSK-on-AMUR

KOMSOMOLSK-on-AMUR

BOLSHOY KAMENVLADIVOSTOK

KHABAROVSK

NOVOROSSIYSK

TUAPSE

ASTRAKHAN

BEREG RESEARCH INSTITUTE FAR-EASTERN DESIGN INSTITUTE VOSTOKPROEKTVERF VOSTOK-RAFFLES 178 SHIP REPAIR YARD 92 SHIP REPAIR YARD 30 SHIP REPAIR YARD

176 SHIP REPAIR YARD

5 SHIP REPAIR YARD

TEMRYUK

DESIGN BUREAU «CORALL»SEVASTOPOL

s far back as in 1974-1976 on the basis of domestic project 61М, the Northern PKB had designed a frigate of project 61ME for India. It was a sign of the times: the Soviet Union had for the first time

designed and built heavy-tonnage (ca 5,000 t) com-batant ships for its foreign customer. An era of the multilateral military-technical cooperation with for-eign countries had begun: the USSR had confirmed its preparedness not only to sell finished ships, but to build those to meet specific requirements (some-

times very complicated and controversial) of its foreign partners.

Ships of project 61ME were fitted with strike and antiaircraft missiles, 76.2 mm and 40 mm artillery mounts, rocket-assisted bomb launchers and five-tube launchers. The ships carried a sonar system with under-keel and trailing wire antennas, a helicopter with a shed in the main hull, as well as radioelectronic weapons and the latest communication facilities.

Five ships of the project were built by Ship-yard named after 61 Communards in the city of

Nikolaev. Leading ship named Rajput was handed over to Indian Navy in 1980, while the ultimate one, Ranjivey – in 1988.

Easy to repair and maintain, ships of that series have at the same time high service properties both in terms of sea worthiness and combat potential. Leading ship Rajput was highly appreciated by In-dian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who visited the frigate in 1981.

Still serving in Indian Navy, frigates of project 61ME mainly discharge HQ ship functions. At present, the destroyers undergo upgrading that in-volves their fitting with Indian-Russian anti-surface system BrahMos and the latest antiaircraft missile system.

Besides, some time ago, at the request of the Indian Government and at the direction of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the Northern PKB jointly with the Navy representatives had specified a list of Soviet armament and military equipment to be installed aboard ships designed in India. During 1984-1986, specialists of the North-ern PKB and certain contractors were sent to Delhi to jointly participate in making basic and detail designs of projects 15 and 25 for Indian Navy. Later, the Northern PKB designers took part in the assembly, adjustment and trials of the Soviet-made armaments and military equipment installed aboard such ships. In 1997, the Navy included in its inventory a leading ship of project 15 Delhi. Dur-ing the recent years, the Customer’s shipyards i.e. Mazagon Dock (Mumbai) and Garden Reach (Cal-cutta) with active technical assistance of the Rus-sian side have built ships of projects 15, 16, 16A, 25 and 25A, and handed them over to the Navy. At present, frigates of projects 15, 16 and 25 built with the help of the Northern PKB specialists by the Indian shipyards successfully discharge their duties as part of Indian Navy.

Since 1999, the Design Bureau jointly with Indi-an specialists had participated in designing a ship of project 17. In particular, the Northern PKB design-ers had prepared and approved a list of Russian ar-mament for the ship. In 2002, the Northern Bureau drafted design documentation and handed that over to the Customer, and in 2007 supplemented that with turnover documentation and service re-cords related to weapon systems and equipment of Russian origin. On April 21, 2010, Mazagon Dock shipyard in Mumbai hosted a ceremony of handing over leading frigate Shivalik built under national project 17 with the use of Stealth technology to In-dian Navy.

UNIONINDISSOLUBLE Military-technical

cooperation between JSC Northern PKB

and the Republic of India has long-standing

traditions

Nearly forty-year-long cooperation with the Asian nation gathers momentum and evolves: The Petersburg-based Design Bureau takes active part in designing marine equipment and armaments for Indian Navy establishing contacts with private ship builders to expand the cooperation scope.

А

BUILDING THE SHIPS OF PROJECT 61ME

Russian name

Laid down Launched In- commission

Handed over to Indian Navy

Indian name

Nadyozhny 11.09.1976 17.09.1977 30.11.1979 04.05.1980 Rajput

Gubitelny 29.11.1976 27.09.1978 30.09.1981 10.02.1982 Rana

Lovky 29.06.1977 16.06.1979 20.07.1983 24.11.1983 Ranjit

Tvyordy 24.10.1981 12.03.1983 30.12.1985 21.04.1986 Ranvir

Tolkovy 19.03.1982 01.02.1986 15.10.1987 24.02.1988 Ranjivey

Ship of project 61ME

Ship of project 25

IN CONTACT

Visit of Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi to leading ship of project 61ME Rajput.At the left — V.M.Stavitski, handover representative of Shipyard named after 61 Communard, at the right — A.D.Shishkin, Chief Designer, 1981 г.

USC №1(9), 2012 1514 USC №1(9), 2012

cruise missiles 3M-54E having supersonic war-head detachable on the terminal phase and capa-ble of destroying heavily protected targets within a range of under 200 km. Developed by specialists of Yekaterinburg-based Design Bureau Nova-tor, Club-N is the first domestic ship-born strike system with vertical firing. The frigate of project 11356 has acquired another first-rate armament i.e. artillery mount A-190 with fire control system Puma, and AA intermediate-range missile system (no Russian warship has carried such a system before). AA missile and artillery system Kashtan is designed to protect the ship against aerial threat within close-in and immediate zones.

Apart from strike and antiaircraft weapons, the frigate is fitted with ASW weapons consisting of two sonar stations (i.e. towed one plus another in the bulb pod), two torpedo launcher and one bomb launcher. The ASW system is supplemented with a continuously stationed helicopter.

Main propulsion machinery plant aboard the ships of such project has its distinctive features too. The plant consists of two cruising and two afterburning gas turbines. Noteworthy is that at slow speed, both screw shafts could be powered by a single turbine, which substantially saves fuel and service life of the main propulsion machinery plant. The frigate’s full speed is 30 knots.

The ship’s hull looks slightly unusual. It was designed to meet requirements for lower radar sig-nature, and therefore her main deck superstructure having wide wall tumblehome angles smoothly ex-tends to the main hull.

Under project 11356, the Saint-Petersburg-based Baltiyski Zavod had built three frigates – Talwar (Sword), Trishul (Trident) and Tabar (Axe). In 2003-2004, following the trials, the ships were handed over to the Indian side.

he issue of building the second trio of frigates for Indian Navy was addressed as soon as the Talwar building has started. The Customer’s representatives have more than once expressed their

desire to extend the series, should the experience of operating the first ships prove positive. In August 2005, JSC Rosoboronexport received an official or-der for supplying three other ships of project 11356 to Indian Navy with proposals on their performance improvement.

A month later, the Northern PKB provided the Customer with contract specifications, and on Sep-tember 26 the first negotiations took place. Weap-ons modifications primarily apply to strike and an-tiaircraft systems. Club-N was replaced with missile system BrahMos of Indian-Russian manufacture, while AA missile and artillery system Kashtan – with 30 mm automatic guns AK-630M. Apart from this, the upgraded project involved various develop-ments of hull and improvement of creature com-forts conditions.

The decision on the approval of technical design 253/5/5771 had been made on December 20, 2007; by that time the leading ship of the series had al-ready been laid down at the Baltic shipyard Yantar in Kaliningrad.

India has nominated Shivalik frigates as basic ships of its Navy for the first half of XXI century. They will be made in series, ten such ships as a whole shall be launched. Expected presently is building series 2 comprising seven frigates. For the time being, undergoing various stages of building and trials are two other ships of that type i.e. Sat-pura and Sahyadri that in the nearest future will join Indian Navy.

Full load displacement of Shivalik frigates is 5,300 tons. The ships are capable to reach cruising speed under 30 knots. Weapons aboard the ships consist of anti-surface missile system Club-N, AA missile systems Stil-1 and Barak, 76 mm artillery mount Oto Melara, two 30 mm artillery mounts AK-630M, two three-tube torpedo launchers, two missile-bomb launchers RBU-6000. The frigates’ air group could include two helicopters Dhruv or Sea King. Besides, the ships carry local area network. Their radioelectronic weapons are represented by radar Frigate-M2EM, 3Ts-25E.

ur successful cooperation is well exemplified by the joint development of a radically new combat command information system for project 17 capable of controlling weapons

operated not only by a single ship, but by a whole naval force.

In late nineties, on request of Indian Navy, the Bureau had been entrusted with drafting docu-ments for a frigate of project 11356. Taken as model was the Bureau-designed guard-ship of project 11351 series-built in the eighties to order of the KGB border guard naval forces.

The frigate had standard displacement of 3,830 t and full displacement of 4,035 t. A dis-tinctive aspect of her has become the upgraded weapons accepted and tested jointly with the ship. The new anti-surface missile system Club-N was designed as a multi-purpose vertical launcher of

Since 1999, the Bureau jointly with Indian specialists has participated in designing ship of national project 17. Shivalik frigates built under that project were nominated by India as basic ships for its Navy in the first half of XXI century

BUILDING SHIPS OF PROJECT 11356

Serial No.

Indian name

Russian name

Laid down Launched Handed over to Indian Navy

01301 Talwar Metch 10.03.1999 12.05.2000 18.06.2003

01302 Trishul Trezubets 24.09.1999 24.11.2000 25.06.2003

01303 Tabar Sekira 25.05.2000 25.05.2001 19.04.2004

О

Т

Shivalik class frigate

Frigate of project 11356

IN CONTACT

V.Ye.Yukhnin and Indian representatives negotiating frigate of project 11356

USC №1(9), 2012 1716 USC №1(9), 2012

In mid September 2009, the Indian side gave the new ships official names i.e. Teg, Tarkash and Trikand.

The first two frigates will be handed over to In-dian Navy in 2012, the third one in 2013.

In late 2008, the Northern PKB under the auspic-es of JSC Rosoboronexport had begun to establish contacts with private Indian shipyards within the framework of the Indian Navy advanced develop-ment program. Recently, the Bureau jointly with Pipavav Defence and Offshore Engineering Compa-ny Ltd. has taken part in designing NOPV maritime zone patrol ships for Indian Navy.

For the time being, the Northern PKB studies the following potential directions of its military-technical cooperation with other countries:

> design (joint design included) of armament and military equipment in the interests of the Customer;

> joint research and development efforts; > setting up joint ventures to develop, manufac-

ture and export modern weapons; > participation in tenders held to choose ad-

vanced armament and military equipment for national armed forces.

Such spectrum of directions cannot be success-fully implemented without long-term planning, which calls for a wide range of scientific research including market research.

Positive history of military-technical cooperation between Russia and other nations provides strong evidence in favor of the fact that domestic weapon developers and manufacturers are capable to coop-erate with and compete head-to-head against the leading international makers of combat equipment.

Events shaking our turbulent world entail essen-tial changes in military markets. The Northern PKB ship builders are prepared to successfully handle the changes because they possess adequate skill and expertise to meet challenges of the world’s naval arms market on a real time basis. High scientific and technical potential, modern production base and well-established relations with leading research and development centers and ship-building compa-nies enable the Northern PKB to create high-tech, science-intensive and competitive projects of war-ships, to promptly respond to dictates of the time and requirements of Russian sea power and naval forces of other nations.

BUILDING SHIPS OF PROJECT 11356

Serial No Indian name

Russian name

Laid down Launched

01354 Teg Sablya 27.07.2007 27.11.2009

01355 Tarkash Luk 11.06.2008 24.06.2010

01356 Trikand Kolchan 27.11.2008

In late 2008, the Northern PKB has started establishing contacts with private Indian shipyards within the framework of the Indian Navy advanced development program

The first frigate, Teg (Saber), on berth of Yantar Shipyard as on the

launching day of November 27, 2009

IN CONTACT

18 USC №1(9), 2012

ndian frigates have been laid down on the slip of Yantar shipyard in 2007-2008. Now, their building is almost over, the first ship will soon be handed over to the Customer. A representative of our maga-

zine’s editorial board interviewed the 11356 Project Manager Boris KRUTIA to cover particulars of im-plementing such a significant order.

— Boris Sergeyevich, how long had the shipyard cooperated with India?

— All in all, since sixties of the past century. At that time, our shipyard was building three guard-ships of project 159AE doing this as for our own navy, being simply aware that the ships were for India. Building organization system that time was entirely different. The Customer took no part in the building, while finished ships, once handed over to our state commission, were presented by our side to Indian specialists in Baltiysk and Riga. Their very strict requirements for products quality are still fresh in our memory. We had for the first time realized the meaning of tropicalized rubber, various coatings resistant to tropical heat etc.

— When had the work under project 11356 started? After all, your shipyard was suffering a grave crisis.

— On the very 2006 Christmas eve, we were informed that Rossudostroenie Corporation and Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation nominated Yantar as the best fit shipyard to build the second trio of such ships.

Yes, you are right, at that time our shipyard’s situation left much to be desired: its workload was poor, only 1800 workmen were employed. We were mainly making ships under state-guaranteed orders continuing 11540 project line. Putting it mildly, the State’s approach to building ship at our shipyard was not all that enthusiastic, our portfolio was lean. Many people questioned Yantar’s ability to execute that order. Nevertheless, in early 2006, in the capac-ity of the shipyard’s chief engineer I was invited to negotiate this contract in India. To us, this was terra incognita, but I had already been well aware of pro-ject 1135, and what’s more, since 2003 our shipyard was used for fitting-out a 11356 project frigate built by Baltiyski Zavod. All of us were visiting the ship, helping her builders with docking, painting and other work.

— When had the building started? By the way, what had made the State doubt about you?

— The case is that our sub-series of frigate had to be fitted with a lot more of western and Indian equipment as compared to the first trio, and what’s the most important – with BrahMos missile system. That system then gave rise to sharp debates. Under debate was Yantar’s very ability to fit new ships with such armament, as well as our readiness for build-ing similar ships at all… Eventually, following ap-propriate inspections and discussions, our industry superiors decided in favor of Yantar, and on July 14, 2006 the contract was signed. Official date of the building start coincided with October 30, 2006, when the first advance payment was effected.

— Had the Indian order somehow changed state of affairs at your shipyard?

— You bet. It is impossible to overestimate its effect. The order has literally recovered the shipyard to life. Well aware of the fact that the implementa-tion of the new project requires renovation of the shipyard’s production facilities, we had done our best to make provisions in the contract cost for an amount needed to develop the shipyard. This had enabled us to renew the shipyard to a certain ex-tent: Yantar had purchased state-of-the-art fabrica-tion facilities, machines, computers, new software. Thank heaven that despite of poor workload during the previous years, our shipyard had retained its top-notch specialists. Once given that order, the shipyard had succeeded to regain those who left us in the nineties, I mean the people really able to build ships. Their experience proved very valuable, and no doubt stood us in good stead when we kept on working under the project.

— Newness of the project had surely caused difficulties. How had you handled them?

— We were not afraid of hardware, and en-countered no problems with hull manufacture. At the first stage, one of the most challenging issues was the requirement of the designer i.e. Northern Planning and Design Bureau for making electronic drawings. We had set up a nowadays primitive net-work adequate at that time to share the designer’s system, and found ourselves able to decently com-municate with it. However, in all sincerity, the designer had proved unable to bite off more than it could chew, and most of the spaces had received manually drafted schematics. At the end, we have had something midway between electronic and paper design documentation. A year before the In-dian contract, the shipyard lost the best specialists in mold loft production preparation. It was a bad

« LESSONS WE LEARNED...»A special milestone in the history of the Baltic Shipyard Yantar is building of three 11356 project frigates for Indian Navy

In view of the shipyard’s wide experience and its long-standing unblemished reputation, in 2006 Yantar Shipyard was entrusted again with an important national task. The ‘Indian series’ simply revived the shipyard: following a hard period of production stagnation, the shipyard found itself again on the frontline of Russian shipbuilding industry, and did its best to successfully execute the order.

Once given that order, the shipyard had succeeded to regain those who left us in the nineties, i.e. the people really able to build ships

IAN IMPORTANT ORDER

USC №1(9), 2012 2120 USC №1(9), 2012

blunder of ours to let them leave. Therefore, we had to order lofting to Saint-Petersburg-based TsNIITS and other entities who used unable to meet dead-lines. This had caused delays in the Indian contract schedule at the very initial work stage. Besides, SPKB had strongly recommended to fabricate more than 45 mm diameter pipes based on electronic drawings, which we had managed using our own resources. However, the design had revealed errors thus resulting in rejecting 10% of pipes for the In-dian contract, which had led to considerable losses of funds and time. To overcome all these difficulties and discrepancies, our shipyard’s specialists paid great efforts of both brain and brawn.

— Why had the shipyard failed to comply with the initial building schedule?

— In my view, there are two major reasons for failure to meet deadlines i.e. technological back-wardness of the shipyard and short funding of contractors. Want of funds had in general heavily affected the building schedule. I am more than cer-tain: had the shipyard formerly accepted to properly pay its specialists and contractors, we would have completed building much earlier. This is because that the shipyard had a team having a perfect knowledge of how to build. But given no decent sal-ary they asked for, they left. To help our own work-ers build ship hulls, we hired other 120 scaffolders, but our failure to adequately remunerate them had reduced their number to no more than 40 people. Bitter experience taught us to economically moti-vate our workers, nowadays management pursues a more realistic politics in this respect. But it is obvi-ous that the then situation proved in my view one of the major factors responsible for delays.

— How does your shipyard assess Indian representatives?

— The Yantar shipyard received the first mem-bers of the Buyer’s observation team in late 2007. Frankly speaking, at first we were afraid of them. During my first business trips to India, I knew

our Indian partners as very competent specialists, which equally applied to our guests. All of them were navy officers perfectly cognizant of our equip-ment. They asked expert questions, and to us it was hard to defend our viewpoint. As a whole, we hosted 15 Indian specialists with their families. Unlike the Baltiyski Zavod, where the first trio was attended by 4 persons, we took over more charges. But to pay a tribute to our shipyard management, we proved to be good hosts having made both living and working conditions quite comfortable. Eventu-ally, everyone enjoyed.

We used to hold regular meetings with the In-dian party: twice a week with the Buyer’s observa-tion team and twice a year at the level of the Indian Navy Joint Headquarters. The meetings address all particulars of the ship building process paying attention to technical, financial, coordination, po-litical and other aspects. This is envisaged in our contract. Having discussed all the issues, we make joint decisions. Our cooperation has another higher level: an inter-governmental panel has been formed to deal with shipbuilding-related subjects including our project through working meetings. In my view, this is a very reasonable and efficient format of business-like partnership.

— How you like the Indians in purely human sense?

— I had already mentioned superior educational level of Indian specialists. Apart from this, the fact that they make their best to entirely justify their salaries paid by the State, inspires great respect. Un-fortunately, we often lack this property along with diplomacy, self-control and ability to properly com-municate with the foreign customer’s representa-

tives. However, against all odds, we have managed to build good relations with the specialists of the Buyer’s observation team, and we highly appreciate their attitude. The Indians are willing to establish close human and professional contact with the shipyard personnel. Now I can describe our contact with them as full.

— Two-way exchange of experience?

— Definitely. The Indians are our students in terms of engineering and shipbuilding production. But as concerns the organization of building process, logistics and records management, it’s our turn to follow their suit. The Indians would never lose any document, and if required, would find it in no time. In my view, their most important advantage we have to copy is their staff turnover system: they continu-ously shuffle their personnel to leave no one linger in one place so that to prevent cronyism. All members of the initial Buyer’s observation team were substi-tuted over the two years. What a wonder, no one has noticed this: the system of working relations has re-mained intact, no failure in the building process has occurred. This is what we have to learn.

— What is happening now?

— Today, the three ships already exist and are set afloat. In early February, the first one having finished performance trial, undergoes preparations to be handed over to the Customer. The second ship has been taken over by an excellent and responsible builder who competently uses experience gained with the first ship. All technology-related discrep-ancies with designer have been entirely eliminated, due to which the second ship looks far better than the first one, and is more neatly built. Now she undergoes basin trials, and in April is expected to be taken out for performance trial in the Baltic Sea. The third ship’s situation has seriously been aggravated by shortage of workers. Her building practically maintains schedule, but she is acutely short of pipe fitters, which delays pipelining. All the equipment has been installed a long ago, the ship is afloat, but no pipelines have been laid so far. This is a common problem in Russia: long downtime and low remunerations made skilled pipe fitters quit, while no new ones were trained, then shipbuilding industry faced a real boom, which turned pipe fit-ters worth their weight in gold with no one available and nowhere to recruit from…

— Will you succeed in handing over the frigates by the deadline?

— I think we will. We certainly have failed to comply with the contract milestones, but in terms of the ships building quality, the Customer has no

claims against us. Believe me, the ships proved re-ally great. No makeover is needed. During the latest project review meeting, we recorded deadlines for handing over all the three frigates. We will stick to such deadlines. As for now, I am pleased that the shipyard is committed to these deadlines and to successful completion of the project.

— Had such large-scale project influenced on the development of the Russian shipbuilding industry as a whole?

— No doubt, this order had a very beneficial ef-fect on the industry development. Such factories as Avrora, Meridian, Almaz-Antei supplied us with equipment for the ships, and our orders definitely enabled them to develop. The contract caused a jump in production of almost all supplier enter-prises. Besides, we engaged their specialist to the work, which seriously revived our relationship. Apart from this, if the first trio of the ships was built by the Baltiyski Zavod out of the former Soviet leftovers, and equipment installed aboard them was frequently taken from production reserves of the nineties, then, to build our ships the Customer required equipment made after 2006. And the sup-plier started making this. In my view, it indicates real positive changes in the development of the shipyards as such, and the whole system of the in-dustrial cooperation.

— As you have mentioned, the frigates proved great. Doesn’t Russian Navy need such super-ships?

— As it turned out, it does. Owing to the In-dian project, we were given an order for a series of similar ships for Russian Navy, which is jolly good. The experience gained opens wide prospects to us laying a firm basis for our further success. Defi-nitely, under the Russian project we have another customer, the relationship with whom we will have to fine-tune. I believe that the customer’s approach to the order, and clarity of specifications will pri-marily determine the whole building progress of the Russian series. For example, I am confident that the successful implementation of the domestic contract needs formation of the highest-level coordinating council with the customer’s participation on the model of the council making now practical deci-sions in respect to ships for Indian Navy.

/The interview is prepared with the participation of JSC Yantar Press Service/

Twice a year, the ship building process is discussed with the representatives of the Indian Navy Joint Headquarters. All the production-related aspects are significant – technical, financial, coordinating and political ones

We had succeeded in establishing the closest human and professional contact with the Indians

AN IMPORTANT ORDER

USC №1(9), 2012 2322 USC №1(9), 2012

PROJECT VIEW

Diesel-electric submarine, project 677Е «Аmur 1650»

rowing competition in this segment of armaments and military equipment related to the second wave of sales of the used ships by tradi-

tional sea powers did not prevent the general growth of the world export of the naval hardware. In 2011 it reached approximately $6.15 bn, this year, ac-cording to the forecast made by the Center for Analysis of the World Arms Trade (CAWAT), it will grow to $7.3 bn, while in 2013 to $8.4 bn. As the profile market within the framework of NATO and North America is degrading, this moderate, but steady growth will be provided, to a great extent, by the sales of naval equipment in the interests of South-East Asia and Oceania.

According to the journal Zarubezh-noe voennoe obozrenie (Foreign Military Review), the world market of naval equipment in the immediate future (up to 2015) will develop in the five main directions.

The first is auxiliary support vessels. Interest to them is caused by the desire to have a capability of operational deployment of the own armed forces while conducting territorial operations.

The second direction (its develop-ment is particularly active) is connected with the combatant surface ships of the main class and patrol and escort ships. Recent years saw a rapidly growing de-mand for ships of the corvette type with the displacement of 1000-3000 t armed with strike missiles.

The third direction is focused on increasing the volume of acquisitions of conventional submarines. In this seg-ment countries of the Asian region are in the lead.

The remaining two directions are re-lated to conversion by a number of Af-rican, Asian and Latin American coun-tries from modernization of the main sea-going forces to reinforcing the coast guard capability, as well as to a buoyant demand for leasing auxiliary vessels and patrol boats.

As most experts note, striving of the region’s countries for strengthening their naval component provokes, in the first place, ambitious plans and rapid development of the Navy of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China.

PLA NAVYAmong the most combat efficient

ships of China’s Navy are the modern destroyers of the Luoyang-2 class and the Russian-built destroyers Hangzhau, Fuzhou (project 956E), as well as more advanced Taizhou and Ninbo (project 956EM). Their striking power is provid-ed by supersonic anti-ship missiles with a range up to 200 km. Besides, in 2007 China adopted the all-purpose landing ship Houizhau in addition to the already operational 27 big amphibious ships of new classes.

In May 2008 the Chinese Navy con-ducted trials in the Yellow Sea of the submarine ballistic missile Julang-2 (range 8,000 km) designed for use on board the new nuclear ballistic missile

POLITICS AND MARKET

Countries of South-East Asia and Oceania are now very active on the market of naval equipment compensating for the general decrease of new orders and reduction in the number of NATO combatant ships caused by the economic crisis

Naval forces of the Asian region

build up power

NO CALMG

FORECAST:Russia and India have for many decades been developing diversified partnership based on profound community of interests of our countries. Since 1960 we have been enjoying military-technical cooperation which is traditionally of a large scale character.

Igor IvashinGeneral Director of «Sudoexport»

hese efforts gave rise to a shipbuilding sub-group under Russian-Indian Inter-governmental Panel on military-technical cooperation, the meetings of which has already been held for more than a decade.

Traditionally, FSUE Sudoexport representatives have been part of the Commission’s working group since its establishment.The principal sphere of cooperation between «Su-doexport» and the Indian partners is export of ship’s spares and general industrial application itemsfor the Indian shipyards such asMazagon Dock Ltd., Goa Shipyard Ltd.and Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers (projects 15, 1241 and others). Partner-ship of our company with the Indian shipyards didn’t

stop even during the time of hardships experienced by the Russian economy late in the 80s and early in the 90s. Moreover, “Sudoexport” renders technical assistance in shipbuilding abroad in accordance with the Russian license, organizes technical support in design, building and modernization of shipbuilding and ship repair yards, and also coastal infrastructure. Our interaction includes deputation to India of Rus-sian specialists to render consultations and technical assistance in installation, setting-to-work and com-missioning of the supplied equipment within the contracts concluded between «Rosoboronexport» and India.Our working relationshipsuccessfully developed dur-ing the Soviet period and keeps on strengthening nowadays. Our countries adopted a long-term pro-gramme on military-technical cooperation 2011-2020 which covers almost all spheres of partnership of defense industrial complexes of our countries. It’s no doubt that experience of our fruitful mutual relations will considerably contribute to the implementation of the targets of this programme. Cooperation with India was and remains to be a priority for «Sudoex-port».Guided by our common experience and expertise we are happy to maintain our partnership and make it more active in implementing new promising proj-ects.

SUDOEXPORT — INDIA: RELIABLE PARTNERSHIP

18th meeting of the shipbuilding sub-group under Russian-Indian Intergovernmental Panel on military-technical cooperation

Т

PARTNERSHIP

USC №1(9), 2012 2726 USC №1(9), 2012

submarines of the Jin class. In early 2010 mass media reported tentatively that China has five strategic missile carriers. Multi-purpose nuclear-pow-ered submarines are represented by the latest boats of the Shang class. Ac-cording to the US Defense Department, by 2010 the number of such nuclear submarines may be from three to eight. Among China’s most advanced diesel electric submarines are the boats of the Yuan class fitted with unique air-independent propulsion systems and armed with torpedoes and underwater-launched anti-ship missiles with a range up to 120 km.

International military press now ac-tively discusses China’s building of the aircraft-carrying ships. Beijing has several written-off or incompletely built aircraft carriers. One of them, the air-capable cruiser Varyag, bought in Ukraine in 1998, was converted successfully and already underwent first trials. According to some data, the country’s military com-mand took a decision to build two more ships of this type with the displacement up to 60-65 thousand tons which will be able to carry up to 50 aircraft. These may become operational by 2020 and the pro-pulsion system may be nuclear.

China’s Navy gradually expands the region of its presence. According to the information from the Xinhua agency containing a reference to a statement

made by the Commander-in-Chief of the PLA Navy WuShengli, during 3 years the combatant ships of China’s Navy carried out 409 missions in the Gulf of Aden escorting 4411 Chinese and for-eign ships. The military commander said that in different periods PLA sent to the region 25 ships and vessels, 22 heli-copters and more than 8400 servicemen in 10 detachments.

Now the PLA Navy actively enhances the complex of naval bases. The biggest naval base is being built on the island of Hainan, it is well protected and can provide basing and calls of several nuclear ballistic missile submarines and nuclear-powered submarines, as well as large surface ships, including air-capable ships. The base is fitted with underground facilities invisible to surveillance from space from which underwater tunnels are laid towards the sea to provide access of submarines to the vital sea communications. In the opinion of The Japan Times, such a system can provide not only a high level of survivability and combat stability of submarines, but also makes it possible to deploy a strike force of submarines in the South China Sea stealthily.

In perspective China’s influence in the Asia-Pacific Region (APR) will grow and one of the main tools for enhanc-ing its combat potential will be the PLA Navy capable of providing security and

economic development, outside the re-gion, too.

INDIA’S NAVYIndia has all the pre-requisites to

become one of the great sea powers in the immediate future and project its in-fluence far beyond the boundaries of its own territorial waters.

For example, back in June last year there were reports from Delhi that the Indian Navy intends to be present in South China Sea seriously and for long. According to the official version of the government, ‘by the accomplishment of this mission the Indian Navy will play a more prominent role in South-East Asia through which strategic shipping lines are passing.’

The Indian program of naval devel-opment designed for the nearest 20 years is one of the most ambitious plans in the world. All in all, India plans to spend al-most $50 bn to build a hundred of ships. The government believes that one of the essential conditions for the development of the Navy is the refusal to make large-scale acquisitions of the naval hardware abroad in favor of developing its own ship-building industry.

As of today, 49 ships and submarines are being built for the Navy (45 at the Indian shipyards and 4 more abroad), these will be enter the Navy’s inventory within the nearest 5 years.

India’s Navy now has a single aircraft-carrier Viraat (formerly a British ship Hermes) with an air group consisting of Sea Harrier aircraft. In this connection one of the most important projects is the acquisition from Russia of the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, as well as an air group for the latter. By the end of 2020 India also plans to build the aircraft car-

rier Vishal fitted with catapults with the displacement over 60 thousand tons. Therefore, the air-capable component of the Indian Navy will turn from a purely symbolic one (1 obsolete ship) into one of the most formidable force in the world (3 modern conventional aircraft carriers).

In 2010 India signed a contract on the supply of the second batch of the deck-

based MIG-29K aircraft (29 pcs.). All in all, India plans to buy from Russia about 50 such aircraft.

Till the end of 2013 the Indians will get three frigates of Project 11356.

India was and remains one of Rus-sia’s main strategic allies. According to the CAWAT data, before the end of 2000s India was second in Russian arms supplies: $9.874 bn (22.5% of the entire Russian export for the period 2002-2009). The peak of Russia’s export to India (as a share ratio) was in 2003— 35.8% ($1.539 bn). A drop took place in 2004-2006 (the minimal volume of sup-plies was recorded in 2005 — $570 mln, 13.7%). In the three years to follow the share of India started to increase and reached 24.7% ($1.784 bn) in 2009. Now the republic is certainly No.1 in the list of buyers of Russian arms and military equipment.

JAPAN MARITIME DEFENSE FORCE (NAVY) In assessing Japan’s Navy experts

note their complex development with the use of a new element base and with emphasis on classes of ships not built before according to the updated strategic guidelines.

Destroyer Taizhou (project 965EM)

POLITICS AND MARKET

Diesel electric submarine Sindhugosh (Kilo class)

Aircraft carrier Viraat of the Indian Navy

India has all the pre-requisites to become one of the great sea p owers in the immediate future and project its influence far beyond the boundaries of its own territorial waters

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The most advanced and powerful combatant ships of the Japanese Navy are the destroyers of the Congo and Atago classes with the multi-functional weapons control system Aegis.

Under the national shipbuilding pro-gram, by 2015 five destroyers and by 2020 ten new destroyers of a lesser size will enter service. These will be built with a wide application of the ‘stealth’ technologies. Armament will include anti-aircraft missiles of the medium and long range, anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles. The fire control system is the so-called ‘mini Aegis.’

Officially (according to the Consti-tution) Japan is not building aircraft carriers. So the appearance of the first helicopter-carrying destroyer of the Hyuga class (project 16DDH) in the Navy’ composition was quite unex-

pected for the world public opinion. The new ship which entered service in March 2009 is a light aircraft-carrier (or an amphibious helicopter-carrying ship). She can carry up to 11 aircraft, including amphibious assault heli-copters and fire support helicopters, and transport a landing party with the strength up to 500 men. A similar ship – ISE – was transferred to the Navy in March 2011, by 2020 fours ships of this class are planned to be put in the inventory of the Japan Maritime Defense Force. Besides, in the period from 1998 to 2003 Japan’s Navy will receive three tank landing ships of the Osumi class.

The underwater component of the Japanese Navy is represented by 18 die-sel submarines of which 11 submarines of the Oyashio class are the most mod-

ern. These were built using the advanced ‘leaf coil’ design, the hull is coated with the radar-and-sound-absorbing material and works as a sensor. The naval com-mand also attaches great importance to the ships of the Soryu class fitted with an air-independent propulsion system, with greater displacement and with a cross-shaped tailpiece. Perspective require-ments of the Navy are estimated at 20 of such boats.

Japan increases the pace of imple-menting shipbuilding programs which indicates the strengthening of its naval power.

REPUBLIC OF KOREA’S NAVY At the establishment phase the Ko-

rean Navy was armed only with obsolete American ships and submarines, but from the second half of the 80-s Seoul charted a course towards enhancing the combat capabilities of the Navy.

Lately Korea began building diesel submarines which are an export modifi-cation of the latest German boat of pro-ject 212. The first of the three was built in 2007 by the Korean shipbuilding enterprises and was named Son Won Il. The U-boat is armed with torpedoes, mines, anti-ship missiles. She features an air-independent propulsion system, as well as a special coating enhancing the hydro-and-radar stealth. Before the year 2020 nine submarines will enter service. In 2007 Korea began to design a new, larger boat, under the KSS III program, a series of 9 diesel electric submarines of this class will be adopted before 2030.

The main strike force of the surface fleet is the destroyers of the projects

KDX II and KDX III. The KDX-II type ship is the Admiral Lee Sun Shin. De-stroyers of this type are able to destroy surface targets at a range of 120 km, air targets at 120 km, underwater targets at 20 km. Radio and electronic equipment is represented by the modern American systems. So far the inventory includes 6 ships and the same number is expected to be built in 2016-2017. The prototype of more sophisticated destroyers KDX-III was the US ship of the Arleigh Burke class. The leader of the series is the King Sejong the Great. The ship entered service at the end of 2008. By 2020 the republic’s Navy will receive six ships of this project. The main feature of this class is the Aegis system. The ships are capable of destroying surface and air targets at a range over 150 km, under-water targets at 20 km; besides, these can be armed with the Hyunmu cruise missiles.

The amphibious forces are repre-sented by the amphibious helicopter-carrying dock ship Dokdo. The ship’s air group may include up to 15 aircraft (helicopters, Harrier aircraft and, pos-sibly, F-35). Dokdo is the biggest ship in the Korean Navy. The first helo-carrier became operational in 2008, the second and third ones are slated to be commis-sioned in 2012 and 2016, respectively. The ship is capable of landing on an un-prepared coast, participating in the long-range seagoing operations. Since Korea has such a powerful ship it is worth looking at this Asian country as the most

likely candidate to join the elite ‘aircraft-carrying club.’

VIETNAM’S NAVYIn an effort to modernize its Navy rad-

ically Vietnam became one of the biggest buyers of the Russian naval equipment. The total volume of Vietnam’s orders on the supply of naval hardware from Russia is comparable in cost to the current con-tracts being implemented for India.

Presently, the structure of Vietnam’s Navy has an obvious disproportion because quite recently much less atten-tion was paid to the development of the submarine fleet than to surface ships. However, at the end of 2009 a contract was signed for the supply of six diesel electric submarines of the project 636 Kilo, and soon negotiations commenced on building a base for submarines and the respective infrastructure.

Along with the building of the under-sea fleet Vietnam got down to the mod-ernization of combatant surface ships of the main type, as well as boats of various class and purpose. The lion’s share of the main programs on the modernization of Vietnam’s Navy in the sphere of combat-ant surface ships of the main type and boats also falls on Russia.

In 2007 the Zelenodolsk shipyard started to implement a contract signed in December 2006 on building two frig-ates Gepard-3.9 for Vietnam. The first frigate was sent to the customer in July 2011, the second one in August 2011. The export version of the escort ship Gepard-3.9 was developed on the plat-form of project 11661 and is designed to fight surface, underwater and air targets independently and as part of the naval group, as well as to carry out convoy operations, accomplish patrol duties, guard the sea frontier and the economic zone. The modernized Ge-pard for Vietnam employed the stealth technology, is armed with an anti-aircraft missile system Palma-SU with a new optronic guidance system and the missile system Uran. The project pro-vides for outfitting the ship with deck helicopters Ka-28.

In the first half of December last year the Zelenodolsk shipyard officially re-ported its intention to supply Vietnam with two more frigates of the Gepard 3.9

Japanese helicopter-carrying destroyer of the Hyuga class

One of the most advanced destroyers of the Korean Navy King Sejong the Great

POLITICS AND MARKET

Destroyer DD-177 Atago

Submarine Type-214 Son Von-il at the port of Pusan (nearby is the US aircraft carrier Nimitz)

Missile boat, project 1241RE (by NATO classification Tarantula)

The majority of programs on refurbishment and modernization of Vietnam’s Navy are connected with Russia

USC №1(9), 2012 3130 USC №1(9), 2012

project. As for armament for the new ships, emphasis will be placed on the anti-submarine capability.

In January 2003 the Almaz shipyard of Saint-Petersburg transferred to Vietnam’s Navy two patrol boats of the project 1041.2, class Svetlyak (‘Firefly’). Boats of this class are designed to protect the sea frontier, coastal communications and to fight poachers. Armament includes two artillery gun mounts AK-306 and the Igla-1M system to fight air targets. In October last year Vietnam received two more boats of this class. The whole series built by Almaz and Vladivostok Vostochnaya shipyards consists of 10-12 patrol boats Svetlyak.

The program of building missile boats Molniya (‘Lightning’) was also contin-ued. In the 1990-s Vietnam’s Navy took delivery of 4 boats, project 1241RE, with the Termit (‘Termite’) missile system. In 1993 Vietnam bought a license to build missile boats of the project 1241.8 Mol-niya fitted with the Uran system. Now work is underway on the license contract for the supply of ten Molniya boats es-timated for the period to 2016. Besides, Vietnam made an official enquiry about a possibility of technical cooperation on the joint design of speed patrol boats with the displacement from 100 to 400 tons.

The Russian side plans to hand over to Vietnam mobile coastal defense mis-sile systems K-300P Bastion-P slated at

an earliest date. Vietnam became the first customer to order Bastion by sign-ing a contract in 2006 for the supply of two sets of mobile coastal defense mis-sile systems.

Now Vietnam closely cooperates with the Republic of India. The Vietnam-ese side provides naval bases at Nha Trang and Halong for calls by the Indian combatant ships. In its turn, India of-fers Vietnam help in enhancing its naval power through building ships and train-ing of navy men.

INDONESIA’S NAVYThe Indonesian Navy is also devel-

oping very dynamically. In April-May 2012 this small Asian state will receive the first of the ordered stealth trimarans X3K with the displacement about 130 t with missiles, three more boats of the series will enter service by 2014.

Indonesia’ submarine fleet will also undergo serious modernization. A con-tract for building three diesel electric submarines was recently awarded to the South-Korean company DSME. Diesel electric submarines will be transferred

to the Indonesian Navy by June 2018. Displacement of each boat will be 1400, length 61.3 m, complement 40 men, ar-mament 8 torpedo tubes.

The new submarines will come to replace the two obsolete diesel electric submarines of the class 209/1300 bought from Germany in 1981, which today constitute the submarine fleet of Indo-nesia.

SINGAPORE’S NAVY (RSN)According to ARMS-TASS, on

December 5 last year a ceremony was held at the Changi naval base to adopt the first of the two conventional submarines of the Archer class ear-lier belonging to Sweden’s Navy and modernized by the Swedish company Kockums. The said submarines are fitted with an air-independent propul-sion system, a compartment for combat divers, a new climate control system and an advanced combat information and control system. These are the most sophisticated boats within Singapore’s Navy and will remain in service for the nearest 15-20 years. Besides, the divi-sion includes four diesel electric sub-marines of the Challenger class (Sjöör-men, project A 12) built by Sweden in 1968–1969 (Kockums shipyard). Two of them — Conqueror and Chieftain — were handed over to Singapore after modernization in 2000 and in 2001, the Challenger and the Centurion re-

mained in Sweden to train Singaporean crews and were transferred to the Navy by mid-2004.

In 2007 the guided missile frigate Formidable entered service with RSN (the first in the series of 6 built ones). In 2008 RSN adopted Intrepid, Steadfast and Tenacious, and quite recently the last two ships of this series – Stalwart and Supreme. The ships were made un-der the French project Lafayette by the companies DCNS and Singaporean ST Marine. All ships of the flotilla outfitted with the advanced weapons systems, combat control systems, surveillance and communications systems are the main strike force of the Republic’s Navy. These are capable of accomplishing a wide range of missions on the sea thea-tre, including fighting air and surface targets, as well as enemy submarines. In 2009 the Navy replaced all obsolete mis-sile boats Sea Wolf with modern frigates of the Formidable class and declared full readiness to accomplish combat mis-sions.

One more large-scale program of Singapore is the project of enhancing the division of mine sweepers. The French Thales in 2009 received an order to modernize four RSN sweepers of the Bedok class. The main task of the project is to replace the obsolete components and systems, to enhance the effectiveness of mine-sweeping operations and to extend the service life of the ships. Besides the division of mine sweepers, the coastal defense command includes two divisions of patrol ships of the Fearless class and a division of patrol boats of the PB class. RSN includes 8 amphibious ships (four heavy amphibious ships of the Endurance class and four RPL small amphibious ships of the LCU class), as well as a division of special purpose speedboats.

The main trend in the development of the RSN is the implementation of a program to build a third generation naval force having extensive capabilities to accomplish tactical and operational tasks. The successful implementation of the program for modernization of the national Navy whose major task is to enhance combat performance to a maximum will allow RSN in the future to occupy a prominent position among the fleets of the region’s countries.

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN NAVYOne of the APR’s most developed na-

tions, Australia, following its neighbors in the region, began thinking about the combat efficiency of its fleet. To accom-plish this task the Australian Navy in-tends to engage shipbuilding capabilities of other countries.

According to ARMS-EXPO.RU, early last year the helicopter-carrying am-phibious dock ship Canberra with the displacement of 28 thousand tons was launched in the Spanish city of Ferrol. Upon completion of construction she is intended to become the biggest ship of the Australian Navy. As is known, Aus-tralia intends to acquire the total of two such helicopter-capable ships. In the im-mediate future Canberra’s twin Adelaide will be launched. Both ships were built at the shipyards of the Spanish company Navantia. The main strike force of each helo-carrier will be 24 Seahawk helicop-ters.

Besides, as is reported by Defense News, at the end of the last year the Australian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced a tender for the design and supply of 12 new submarines. Invited to participate in the tender were the French company DCNS producing submarines of the Scorpion class, the Spanish Na-vantia making ships of the S-80 project

and the German HDW developing sub-marines of the projects Type 212 and Type 214. The estimated duration of the project is 30 years.

Currently, the Australian Navy con-sists of 6 diesel electric submarines of the Collins class. These are expected to be in service at least until 2020. The new submarines will replace the obsolete Collins boats at least in 2025 or after and will remain in service up to the year 2070.

According to ARMS-EXPO.RU, the other day Australia announced the crea-tion of new radar absorbent material designed for use on the diesel electric submarine of the Collins class. Experts believe that the use of the new radar absorbent material will reduce the range at which surface ships or anti-submarine warfare aircraft can detect Australian submarines.

The buildup of naval forces by the countries of Asia and Oceania implies extensive possibilities for cooperation, both political and economic. The vol-ume of naval hardware acquisitions will grow annually intensifying competition on the world arms market.

/Based on the materials of Russian and foreign

mass media/

POLITICS AND MARKET

Trimaran boat X3K will soon become operational in the Indonesian Navy

Frigate Formidable at the International Maritime Exhibition in China

Singapore’s Navy has all the chances to take a prominent position among the fleets of the region’s countries

Diesel electric submarine of the Australian Navy HMAS Collins

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One of the largest projects ever in the history of Indo-Russian military-technical cooperation, the overhaul and refurbishment of the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov is nearing end

The Vikramaditya will be rolled out for sea trials in just three months in preparation for the acceptance by the Indian Navy later in 2012. Meanwhile, Indian officers and their families live in Severodvinsk to oversee the Gorshkov refit. It looks like the several years of coexistence allowed the shipbuilding factory and the city in general to build fruitful relations and reach total understanding with the foreign guests.

By Anastasia Nikitinskaya

he heavy aircraft carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov was built by the Black Sea shipbuilding factory in Nikolayev, Ukraine for the Soviet Navy back in 1987. It was in service

with the Northern Fleet, but stayed at the berth for more than a decade until July 1999, when it was tugged to Severodvinsk to undergo refur-bishment before it is handed over to the Indian Navy.

After five years of extended talks, the ship was transferred to India free-of-charge, but on condition that it would be upgraded and ret-rofitted at Sevmash. The deal signed, the work started immediately, with the Russian official arms trader JSC Rosoboronexport and later JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation sparing no efforts to launch an aircraft carrier, which any modern fleet can be proud of.

Russian shipbuilders had no experience of transforming a cruiser into an aircraft carrier. Actually no country has. “Our technologists and designers developed specialized rigging for assembling large parts of the hull. The factory did not have handling mechanisms to deal with such heavy parts, because it was

NORTHERN HEART OF VIKRAMADITYA

Presently Vikramaditya is a large workshop, where almost 3,000 people work every day in two shifts

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really the first time in the company’s history that we were extending and expanding the deck of such a large ship. The conditions, in which we were handling heavy and bulky equipment, constructing passages inside the ship and making special trolleys to carry parts and accessories, were very tight,” Sevmash’s deputy director for export products Georgy Zhukov says.

Underwater cutting was used to dismantle the sonar dome and get hold of other oversize equipment, includ-ing turbines, the turbogear assembly, reduction gears, shafts, boilers, etc. to further send them to Sevmash’s workshops or OEM units for repairs. Then flaw detection started in all of more than 2,500 ship’s compartments. More than 500 cuts were made in the hull and superstructure to dismantle all what could be dismantled from the ship using cranes and other handling

mechanisms. Many old superstructure elements were pulled down entirely. The hull was then sand blasted to dis-pose of the old painting and rust. It ap-peared that some of the ship’s integral systems and cabling, which were to remain intact, were actually good for nothing. Finally, eight fuel oil burning steam boilers of the power plant were replaced by diesel ones at the request of the customer. The boilers were de-signed by a dedicated design bureau, and built by JSC Baltyisky Zavod. The latter produced one extra boiler for tests, which was later used at the com-pany’s training site to train Indian and own specialists.

Workers pulled out more than 2,000 km of old cabling from the ship bowels, and deployed a new wiring harness of more than 2,400 km long. The estimated labor intensity of the repair and refit program amounted to more than 20 mil-lion man-hours.

While the work was in progress on the ship, additional adjustments were also made in the wet-dock. For instance, the loadout area and the cribbing were reinforced. When pontoons were in-stalled in December 2005, the ship was finally put to the dock in what can be called a uniquely precise operation, as the gap between the walls of the wet-dock and the ship hull did not exceed half a meter.

The ship got encased in a huge construction of scaffolds and rigs. A lot of work was in store, including the

installation of flight deck sections, sponsons and the ski-jump ramp, which also had to be cleaned, rust-protected and painted. Work was also in full swing inside the ship, where bulkheads and floors were replaced, new carrying structures installed, as well as other accessories and fittings to accommodate cabling and piping. And finally was the flight deck finished with the ramp and the bulb-shaped nose fairing, and the main shaft, propeller and steering accessories installed. With all renovations in place, the ship began to look streamlined but formidable, while its total displacement increased to 45,000 tons.

It goes without saying that not only the outside appearance of the ship changed, but her interior, too. All elec-tronic equipment was now based on state-of-the-art elements. The Vikrama-ditya received advanced navigation, radar, communications and air traffic control systems. To make a long story short, Sevmash has built a real new ship. The sailors of the Russian crew say they are jealous of their Indian counter-parts, who will enjoy an opportunity to serve and live on this powerful modern aircraft carrier.

Aircraft arrestors were tested at a specialized facility in the Ukrainian town of Saki, with all three of them proved effective in real operation.

PRIMARY SPECIFICATIONS

Max length 283.5 m

Max width athwartships 59.8 m

Displacement standard 34,200 t full 45,300 t

Full speed 29 knots

Aircraft capacity 30

Crew 1,924 psnl. inc. air team 763 psnl.

Over 500 cuts were made in the ship body and superstructure to take away old equipment.

Over 2,000 kilometers of old cables were removed from the ship, with new wiring harness of

almost 2,400 km long reinstalled.The estimated labor intensity

exceeded 20 million man-hours.

Foreman Malukhin’s team at Workshop 55

DEAL OF THE CENTURY

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Justifying its title of leader of the Russian shipbuilding industry, Sevmash solves complex nationwide tasks, many of which have no parallel in world practice.

Nikolai Zhirkov,training team leader, MTC production, JSC PO Sevmash

he international project for upgrading the Vikramaditya aircraft carrier for India has already entered into the his-tory of military-technical

cooperation by the scale of concept. The project involves not only develop-ing a high-tech weapon system, which is new for the post-Soviet period, but also meeting other, equally unique chal-lenges – like integration of naval and air equipment, as well as training of all the sailors and officers of the aircraft carrier in different training areas and courses within a short time.

The crew training program is divided into three phases. The first phase is a theoretical high school course, which will be held in St. Petersburg until the end of this year and will take one to five months. The second phase pro-vides for practical training of sailors in Severodvinsk (with the preparation for

participation in commissioning trials) and will last one to four months. In the third and final training phase, the crew will master the ground and maritime ship practice courses aboard the aircraft carrier and this will take a total of 61 calendar days.

THEORYTraining of the first stream of

Indian specialists (152 people) began at the educational institutions of the Naval Training and Research Center (Admiral of the Fleet Kuznetsov Naval Academy) on 14 March 2011. The Indian specialists of the second stream (112 people) sat down at school desks on 1 September 2011. Training of the

The docking phase of the program ended in autumn 2008. After the scaf-folds were dismantled, the aircraft car-rier made its first public appearance to Russian shipbuilders and Indian sailors. Observing the national tradition, Indian officers broke a coconut on the bow of the ship during the official launching ceremony, and the ship was released from the dock on December 4, the of-ficial Day of the Indian Navy.

At the present time the Vikramaditya reminds one of a large workshop, where more than 3,000 people work every day in two shifts. The finishing phase is in full swing, and the berth tests of key mechanisms and systems have been in progress since March 2011. Oversee-ing the process are representatives of Rosoboronexport and Indian officers of the Navy Staff.

he Indian officers and their families live in Severodvinsk, where two apartment houses were specially redesigned for them. Russian builders

made entrance halls, staircases and rooms large and bright in a bid to help foreign guests, who are used to lots of sun in their native land, to feel at home in Russia. The Skazka kindergarten has become international, with many dark skinned boys and girls playing and learning together with their Russian light-skinned friends during musical classes. Teachers and nurses pay a bit more attention to foreigners, observing the rules of hospitality!

It has become a tradition that Indian songs are heard at every celebration at the factory, while colorful costumes and breathtaking dancing performances are adored not only by factory workers, but all people of Severodvinsk. Locals are no longer surprised at seeing Indians with skies, heading for the winter stadium on weekends, and have got used to their hot spices in shop windows. In fact, some spices, which are not known to most of Russians, are brought to the city special for the foreign guests.

Learning to live in Russia was not a piece of cake for Indian specialists at first, but all hardships were overcome fast owing to resourcefulness, keen sense of humor and joint sympathy of both nations. Mr. Shrinivas, who heads the oversight team, is even going to publish a book of funny situations that occurred with him and his colleagues in the northern capital of Russian ship-builders.

For example, once an Indian officer came to a shop to buy some potatoes, but mixed up words and asked the shop assistant to weight a kilogram of pencils. Stunned as she was at first, the shop assistant assured the foreign sailor that the food shop would never have so much stationary on offer. But the strange visitor insisted. The stalemate ended in laughing, when the buyer bent over the counter and pointed at the vegetables he needed. On some other occasion, the shop assistant showed all products on counters consecutively, but missed eggs, and the word – oh, bad

luck! – just slipped out of the memory of the Indian officer. The long queue was on the verge of unrest, as the buyer and the seller did not understand each other and nobody could help. Luckily, the resourceful Indian sailor found a way out: he showed a cockscomb with his hand and started cockadoodledoing out loud!

Several casts of the oversight team have changed since 2004, as their contracts last for two or three years, and then a new group of Indian officers comes to supervise the work on the aircraft carrier in Severodvinsk. Sevmash’s Deputy CEO for foreign economic activities Sergey Novoselov thinks that the factory has managed to establish very productive relations and reach full understanding with the inspectors. “The Indian officers are all experiences specialists, who know what shipbuilding and repairing are. They learn from us, and we learn from them. They are scrupulous and demanding: they spare no efforts to get into details, and insist on explaining each and every point they do not understand. What is important, we settle all disputes without conflicts, in a constructive and calm atmosphere. We are doing the same job, and it helps make our positions closer, as both Russian and Indian participants in the project share the same goal: to make the aircraft carrier the flagship and the pride of the Indian Navy,” he said.

Т

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SCHOOL OF THE SEA WOLF

In addition to repairing and refitting a Project 11430 surface ship, Sevmash has organized theoretical and practical training for the Indian crew of the aircraft carrier in accordance with the previously approved programs

JSC Sevmash CEO Andrei Diachkov congratulating head of Indian Navy oversight team Kudravilli Shrinivas on the Day of the Indian Republic

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third stream (374 people) will begin tentatively in April 2012. The date is being agreed with the Indian side. Upon completion of training, all the graduates will receive the certificates of advanced

training from the Russia’s MoD Naval Academy.

GENERAL PRACTICE Phased training of the crew mem-

bers directly aboard the upgraded aircraft carrier will be carried out since May 2011 till the end of this year. All of the 632 Indian sailors who will com-plete the theoretical course will also undergo a practical course. Sevmash will also arrange 15 streams for short-term training (lasting 14 to 28 days) on the basics of ship design, organiza-tion and damage control for 732 crew members.

In total, 53 groups of foreign custom-er specialists (1401 people) will undergo the theoretical and practical training in 2011-2012.

The first stream of Indian sailors has already passed the entire training pro-gram between 14 March and 4 Novem-ber 2011 — 13 groups consisting mainly of engineering department specialists (a total of 152 people) received the certifi-cates.

For a while, Sevmash had to wait for an order from the Russian Government authorizing the transfer of information classified as state secret to foreign cus-tomer: without it, it would be impossible to complete the theoretical training

SPECIALISTS UNDERGOING THEORETICAL TRAINING AT NTRC EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS — STRENGTH

Commanding officers, including air unit officers 27 people Officer engineers 23 people Officer electricians 15 people NBC protection specialists 12 people Auxiliary sailors and warrants 118 people Sailor mechanics 280 people Specialists in maintenance of engineering department’s electrical and automation equipment 157 people Total 632 people

All of the Vikramaditya crew members without exception (1401 servicemen) will undergo training in 2011-2012

program agreed with the Indian side. On 1 September 2011, once the order was issued, training of the second stream of carrier crew members consisting of seven groups began. To date, all of 112 sailors and officers of this stream have finished the theory course at the Naval Engineering Institute and will complete

their training entirely by 30 March 2012.The practical part of training is con-

ducted by military instructors of the St. Petersburg Naval Academy with the as-sistance of the specialists from Sevmash and counterparty organizations; the programs were preliminarily agreed with the Indian side.

The third and final stream of Indian specialists which are part of the ship’s crew will undergo the theoretical and practical training from 15 March to 4 November 2012. It will include 44 groups, consisting mainly of aircraft carrier commanding officers and electronic specialists totaling 405 people.

SHIP PRACTICEThe course will be carried out in two

phases after completion of the theoreti-cal and practical training of all foreign customer’s specialists being part of the ship’s crew. It is divided into two parts – ground training (it will last 39 working days) and maritime training (14 days). The ship practice will involve the entire aircraft carrier crew personnel (1401 servicemen).

The successful implementation of such a bold and ambitious shipbuilding project will undoubtedly strengthen the long-term fruitful relationship with the Republic of India, a leading arm importer in the world, and will allow Russia to remain the largest partner of the South Asian state in the defense cooperation area in the coming years and beyond.

ccording to a contract signed in January 2004 in New Delhi, the hull of the Russian aircraft carrier Ad-miral Gorshkov was trans-

ferred to the Indian side free of charge on condition that its modernization will be conducted at Sevmash and it will be equipped with a Russian-made air group. In addition, Russia committed to train the Indian crew of the aircraft carrier and build an infra-structure for ship basing in the Indian Ocean. Refitting the ship into a full-fledged aircraft carrier was scheduled to be completed in 2008. However, the contract deadlines slipped: the Russian side stated that the scope of work had been underestimated and

additional funding of the ship upgrade work was needed. In March 2010 the Parties signed an agreement on the revised cost of the Vikramaditya air-craft carrier repair and refurbishment and its delivery date set for 4 Decem-ber 2012The first sea going is scheduled for May 2012, handover of the aircraft car-rier to the Indian Navy — for December this year.

The aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Gorshkov (formerly Baku) was commissioned by the Northern Fleet in 1987. Its length is 283 m, width - 51 m, displacement - over 45,000 tons.

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he ancient monastric lands now accom-modate docks, workshops and slipway sites of the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Cent-er — Russia’s leading shipyard special-izing in repair, upgrade and retrofitting

of submarines and surface ships of various classes. Today, the Indian Navy can justly be called Zvez-dochka’s major foreign partner. Zvezdochka Director

General Vladimir Nikitin told the magazine about the past and prospects for international cooperation.

— Mr Nikitin, how important are the Indian orders for the shipyard?

— We have been maintaining and develop-ing partnership relations with the Indian Navy

for one and a half decades. During this period, Zvezdochka was able to consolidate its status as a leading contractor for the repair and upgrade of Project 877EKM diesel-electric submarines (SSK) of the famous Kilo class. The first Indian subma-rine, INS Sindhuvir, came to us for interim over-haul as early as 1997. This was a special order, be-cause since its foundation Severodvinsk had been a closed town even for most nationals, let alone foreigners. The first export contract «shook» us really and opened Zvezdochka the way to the world arms market. Since 1997, the Ship Repair Center has already returned four retrofitted Kilo-class boats to the Indian Navy. High quality and timely execution of contracts favorably affected Zvezdochka’s international and domestic stand-ing: it received the right to independently operate in the external market (without a state media-tor) as regards services and supplies of military equipment and weapons to foreign customers. The shipyard concluded a contract for repair and upgrade of the fifth Indian submarine already in-dependently.

— Does such an «independent status» facilitate your operation in the Indian market?

— First of all, it is very obliging for us. We can-not afford to dwell on our laurels - we need to strive for excellence, develop new manufacturing technologies.

The Ship Repair Center has now the right to secure contracts with foreign customers on more than two dozen projects for surface ships and submarines. As for India, this primarily involves the repair and modernization of the diesel-electric submarines, including the installation of advanced missile systems. We have contracts also for other types of work: they provide for the supply of spare parts, equipment and materials for repair of sub-marines and surface ships, development and trans-fer of maintenance documentation as well as train-ing of foreign specialists in the repair organization and procedures.

Our shipyard is capable of fabricating unique, technologically sophisticated products. For exam-ple, in 2001, we carried out the installation of a large cavitation tunnel at Visakhapatnam intended

The Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center sets itself the global goal — to strengthen the combat capabilities of India’s submarine fleet.

The north of Russia, the mouth of the Northern Dvina River. Here, three centuries ago, Peter the Great laid the foundation of the Russian Empire’s fleet, while in the middle of the 20th century the nuclear submarine fleet of the Soviet Union was established. Today, Severodvinsk, a town of shipbuilders, continues the glorious shipbuilding tradition of the past by embodying vast historical experience and innovation drive.

PARTNERSHIP FOR FRIENDSHIP’S SAKE

At present, military-technical cooperation between Zvezdochka and the Indian Navy is carried out in several areas — from ship repair and modernization to the supply of spare parts and maintenance documentation

TINS Sundhuvidjay’s crew at the dry-dock launching ceremony for the ship after its repair and upgrade

Director General of JSC Zvezdochka Vladimir Nikitin

INS Sundhuvidjay on sea trials in the White Sea

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for the hydrodynamic tests of advanced ship and submarine models. Zvezdochka, together with a state intermediary, JSC Rosoboronexport, is cur-rently involved in the efforts to establish the in-frastructure for the repair of foreign ships at their home bases.

— There are companies in Russia which have operated on the Indian market much earlier than

Zvezdochka. Why has your shipyard become the major partner of the Indian Navy?

— I think the main reason is not the duration of cooperation, but the timeliness and high quality of contract performance. When working with our customers, we pay very close attention to these fac-tors. Moreover, Zvezdochka has gained vast experi-ence in interim overhauls, upgrades and refitting of submarines of various classes - not only the Indian Kilo-class boats, but also a number of domestic submarines. Moreover, the shipyard possesses ex-tensive repair production and stand facilities. For many years we have established effective coopera-tion between subcontractors. We have also intro-duced a modern quality control system that meets international standards. Bearing all these benefits in mind, the Indian side’s choice can hardly be consid-ered accidental.

Numerous contracts fulfilled by Zvezdochka for the Indian Navy in the last years suggest the impor-tance of our relationship. At present, our shipyard is carrying out military-technical cooperation with the Indian Navy in several areas — from ship over-haul and modernization to the delivery of spare parts and maintenance documentation.

— How many contracts has Zvezdochka fulfilled within Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation?

— Believe me, a lot. It would take a lot of time to enumerate them, so I shall mention the most important ones. In 1999, the Ship Repair Center completed the interim overhaul of its first foreign ship, INS Sindhuvir and handed over it to the Indian Navy. In 2002, Zvezdochka returned INS Sindhuratna to service — we conducted pilot work on the installation of the Club-S missile system on it. Three years later, INS Sindhughosh sailed from Severodvinsk to its native shores. In addition to the Club-S, we fitted it with Indian-made systems, namely the Ushus sonar and the CCS communi-cations system. INS Sindhuvijay, delivered to the customer in 2008, was additionally furnished with

another several systems, among them Indian-made ones. As to INS Sindhurakshak, which is undergoing repair, we are installing already twelve various Indian-made systems on it. Note that each new contract for the repair of these submarines suggests the increasing capabilities of the Indian national shipbuilding industry, and Zvezdochka is making a considerable contribution to its strengthening, because the increase in combat power of the Indian submarine forces is our com-mon cause.

I shall give some details about current contracts. Zvezdochka is now conducting the interim over-haul and upgrade of INS Sindhurakshak, the fifth Kilo-class Indian submarine. The ship arrived to Severodvinsk in August 2010. The refitted subma-rine will feature the Club-S missile system, Ushus sonar, upgraded cooling systems, CCS-MK-II com-munications system, Porpoise radar and some other systems.

The Zvezdocka Ship Repair Center was set up to repair, upgrade and refit naval ships. Con-struction of the shipyard began in 1946 and it started operations in 1954. During its half century history, Zvezdochka has repaired 121 submarines and 87 surface ships, built 236 vari-ous vessels. Some of the ships have undergone unique refitting, replacement of nuclear power plants, weapon systems, and upgrades of ship systems.

Indian Navy’s submarines that have undergone repairs and upgrades at the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center

> INS Sindhuvir: interim overhaul (1997-1999)

> INS Sindhuratna: interim overhaul and upgrade with installation of the Club-S missile system (2000-2002)

> INS Sindhugosh: interim overhaul and upgrade with installation of the Club-S missile system and a number of Indian-made systems — Ushus sonar, CCS communications system and Sirs radiation monitoring system (2002-2005)

> INS Sundhuvidjay: interim overhaul and upgrade with installation of the Club-S missile system and a number

of Indian- and foreign-made systems, including Ushus sonar, CCS commu-nications system and Sirs radiation monitoring system, Porpoise radar, MCA remote antenna, York series refrigerating machines, Sulzer HP air compressor(2005-2008)

> INS Sindhurakshak: interim overhaul and upgrade (since August 2010 to date)

INS Sindhurakshak’s officers during a working meeting chaired by the Zvezdochka Director General

INS Sundhuvidjay returned from sea trials. The boat officers and Zvezdochka’s trial crew members

The Indian shipbuilding industry has been steadily growing and the Ship Repair Center makes a major contribution to its strengthening

Flag raising ceremony on Independence Day of India, Severodvinsk, August 2011

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Dock operation for INS Sindhurakshak while taking in the ship for repair

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In addition, Zvezdochka has been selected as prime contractor for upgrading five Kilo-class submarines, involving the installation of the Club-S missile system and the Apassionata-EKM.1 im-proved navigation system. All work is done by our specialists in India, where the ships are based.

I shall add that dozens of contracts for the sup-ply of spare parts, tools and accessories, equipment and materials for maintaining ships and repair of submarines at Indian shipyards have been fulfilled or are being implemented since 2003.

— How do you assess the prospects for further cooperation with the Indian Navy?

— I’m sure that vast experience we have accu-mulated with our partners in repairing Kilo-class submarines should be used also to further improve the Indian submarine fleet. Zvezdochka is ready to quickly and efficiently repair and upgrade the next boat, INS Sindhushastra. Meanwhile, the service life of this ship raises a question of the need for its interim overhaul and we’ve already submitted the appropriate proposals to the Indian side. We believe

that placing such an order with Zvezdochka is the best choice for the Indian Navy in terms of maintaining combat readiness of the Indian submarine fleet. If our Indian partners take this decision, this would logically complete the cycle of first yard repairs of Indian Kilo-class submarines.

Of considerable interest for Zvezdochka is also the prospect for carrying out the second yard repairs of these submarines with extend-ing their service life. The point is that the Indian Navy has a large Kilo-class submarine fleet and, with a reasonable approach to the repair and upgrade issues, all these ships will remain in service for at least thirty-five years, while maintaining their performance and high combat qualities. Moreover, the Indian sailors will gain valuable experience in operating ships beyond their design lives and will be able to ap-ply their new knowledge to submarines of other projects.

Zvezdochka is now is the sole Russian shipyard that has experience in carrying out interim over-hauls of submarines together with the extension

of their service life. And we are ready to transfer our entire experience to the major foreign partner, including the introduction of monitoring and fault diagnosis procedures for equipment and a ship as a whole, among them nondestructive testing meth-ods. The implementation of our proposals for the second interim overhauls of Kilo-class submarines will help the Indian Navy maintain operational readiness of the submarine fleet for a long time at relatively low costs.

In addition, we have already submitted our pro-posals for establishing a ship after-sales and service system to the Indian Navy Command. Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center is currently the only contrac-tor providing engineering supervision and service maintenance of more than three hundred Russian Navy ships. I believe that our experience accumu-lated in this area should be of interest to our Indian partners.

Finally, Zvezdochka will continue to strengthen its standing in the Indian naval arms market by ex-panding the range of spare part supply and provid-ing other military-technical services.

The Indian Navy is our number one partner and the shipyard has concentrated their best efforts on the execution of its orders. Starting with the first Indian ship we received for repair, the shipyard has engaged its most qualified engineers and workers on these projects, regardless of where the work is done – in Severodvinsk or in India, at the home base.

Long-term cooperation with the Indian Navy and its further growth require very close coordina-tion. So we are setting up a representative office of the Zvezdochka Ship Repair Center in India.

— When the contracts are being fulfilled, the shipyard is definitely attended by Indian Navy’s representatives. Tell me honestly do conflicts occur? After all, there are differences in mentality, traditions...

— We have no conflicts. Indeed, fifty to three hundred Indian citizens are in Severodvinsk during the submarine repair period. Some of them work here on a permanent basis; others come here for a short time. These are officers and employees work-ing in the supervision team, ship crew members, and specialists in installation and adjustment of Indian-made systems, together with their wives and children. The children attend kindergarten, go to our schools together with the Russian children, and participate in sports and creative circles. Adults also willingly participate in the sporting and cul-tural life of the town.

Last summer, an agreement on cooperation in the social and cultural spheres was signed between the Indian ship crews and the municipal authorities. The ceremony was attended by the Indian Ambas-sador to Russia Mr Ajai Malhotra. We are doing our best to make our Indian friends feel in Russia, if not at home, at least as comfortable as possible. Unfortunately, we cannot control our harsh north-

ern winters but we are trying to offset these climatic inconveniences by our warmth and traditional Russian hos-pitality

A common cause brings people to-gether. The Indians are tough and de-manding partners. However, outside the yard they usually establish good friendly relations with our employees. Our Indian friends together with their families regularly take part in our fes-tivities organized by Zvezdochka and are always glad to see Russian col-leagues on their holidays.

I am confident that our joint work is the key to friendship and mutu-ally beneficial cooperation not only between Zvezdochka and the Indian Navy, but also between our great na-tions.

The prospect for the second yard repair of Indian submarines together with a significant extension of their service life is extremely important

INS Sindhurakshak Commander Rajesh Ramkumar taking the bread and salt from Zvezdochka

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Zvezdochka has repaired

121 submarines

and 87 surface ships,built

236 various vessels

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Combatant craft of Soviet origin had not only supplemented Indian Navy with crucially new capabilities to fight hostile surface ships and beach installations, but what is particularly significant, had be-come an excellent school for generations of seamen. Suffice it to say that many Indian admirals used to serve aboard “two hundred fives”.

High quality and reliability of the equipment supplied to our Indian part-ners are confirmed by long service life of the missile boats.

The fact that India had monumental-ized the “two hundred five” is another telling example of the nation’s respect to-wards ships of the Russian manufacture.

Friendly relationship between the two states and their navies had led to the then unprecedented step in the develop-ment of the military-technical coop-eration, when India acquired the latest combatant ships serial-built at that time for the Soviet Navy. Once adopted for service in India, Ovod-type small-size missile ships ranked in the West among missile corvettes, proved a painful sur-prise to the USA and NATO navies. In 1977-1978, our Indian allies acquired

three 1234E project small-size missile ships carrying missile systems P-20M built in Leningrad-based Primorski ship-yard. To be converted to project 1234E, Soviet Navy handed over its unfinished ships: Hurricane (Indian version - — K71 Vijay Durg), Surf (K72 Sindhu Durg) and Tide (K73 Hos Durg).

Within less than a decade, Indian Navy, one of the first navies in the world to acquire anti-surface cruise missiles, entered a new stage of its development. Experienced in operating combatant craft and missile corvettes designed by TsMKB Almaz, Indian sailors were ca-pable to master larger surface ships with strike missile weapons.

n 1979 Almaz developed an export variant of Molniya (Thunderbolt) i.e. project 1241RE with missile system P-20 and radar target des-

ignation system Harpoon-E. Rybinsk-based shipyard had started building ships of such project in 1980, and a few years later Indian Navy acquired five ad-vanced missile corvettes.

Such type of ships is known in Indian Navy by the name of their leader i.e. K40 Veer handed over in March 1987. She was followed by K41 Nirbhik, K42 Nirat, K43 Nishank, K44 Nirghat.

Indian sailors had highly appreciated the new ships, and therefore when mak-ing its decision on setting up licensed production of small-size striking ships at national shipyards, Indian Navy had chosen the proven project of TsMKB Almaz.

A.V.Shliakhtenko, General Director — Principal Designer of Almaz Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering (TzMKB Almaz).

TsMKB Almaz gained its first experi-ence of joint work with the Indian Navy in early 1971, when eight missile boats of project 205 were supplied to India.

Carrying anti-ship missile system P-15, boats of such project known as K82 Vir, K83 Vudut, K84 Vijeta, K85 Vinash, K86 Ninat, K87 Nashat, K88 Nirbik and K89 Nirgat became the first platforms with strike missiles to join Indian Navy. In late 1971, such boats took part in military operations against Pakistan.

Performance of Indian sailors was highly appreciated by the USSR Navy Commander-in-Chief Sergey Gorshkov, while high combat efficiency of Almaz-designed ships gave confidence to cham-pions of military-technical cooperation in this sphere.

Heavy pressure on missile boats, and need for reinforcing naval strike forces had soon after required augmentation and replacement of the existing ships. In 1976-1977 India acquired eight mis-sile boats of project 205ER with missile system P-20.

Cooperation between the two nations in the sphere of naval engineering was launched by the Soviet-Indian agreement signed in 1965. Saint-Petersburg — based Almaz Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering had cooperated with Indian Navy for more than forty years, which evidences in favor of the high confidence gained by Russian designers. Indian sailors worthily assessed superior quality and reliability of ships built to Almaz projects.

SERVICE LIVES OF PROJECT 205ER MISSILE BOATS IN INDIAN NAVY

Commis- sioning date

De-commissioning date

K90 Prachand 17.02.1976 29.12.1999K91 Pralaya 17.02.1976 08.06.2001K92 Pratap 17.02.1976 17.05.1996K93 Prabal 17.02.1976 29.12.1999K94 Chapal 04.11.1976 05.05.2005K95 Chamak 04.11.1976 05.05.2005K96 Chatak 09.02.1977 05.05.2003K97 Charag 17.10.1977 17.05.1996

Boats of projects 205 — K82 Vir, K83 Vudut, K84 Vijeta, K85 Vinash, K86 Ninat, K87 Nashat, K88 Nirbik and K89 Nirgat had become the first ships carrying strike missile weapon to be accepted for service in Indian Navy

Missile boat K94 Chapal of project 205ER

Missile boat K86 Ninat of project 205

Small-size missile ship of project 1234E

THUNDERBOLTS FOR THE COUNTRY OF GODS Military-technical cooperation between

Russia and India has semicentennial history dating back to the past century

K94 Chapal now serving as a monument at Karwar Naval Base

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In 1985, the USSR and India entered into a contract for drawing up license documentation to build boats of project 1241RE at Indian shipyards. The con-tract provided for rendering technical assistance during building and tests. In charge of building and handover were two Almaz work teams headed by Yu.V.Arsenyev and A.V.Shliakhtenko. All in all, prior to 2000, Bombay-based shipyard Mazagon Dock Ltd. and Goa Shipyard Ltd. in the city of Goa had built six boats.

According to such an authoritative source as International Defense Review, despite of the fact that the cost of build-ing Vipul in India approximated 940 M Rupees (USD 35 M), which by far exceeds the cost of building the same boats at Russian shipyard in Rybinsk, “India had gained an invaluable experi-ence”.

Among projects of combatant ves-sels designed by Almaz, Indian Navy had also expressed its interest in mine countermeasures vessels as extremely necessary to the national defense. Even-tually, over the period of 1978 – 1988, mine clearing forces of Indian Navy had acquired twelve sea-going minesweep-ers of project 266ME, and in 1983-1984 – six harbor minesweepers of project 1258E.

Once familiarized with missile-carrying Molniya boats, the Indian party had no longer hesitated to choose the ship destined to protect inshore waters and zones of responsibility of naval bases

against hostile submarines. During 2 years as from 1989, India purchased four vessels of project 1241PE i.e. the ASW version of “Thunderbolt” with diesel propulsion plant.

Apart from artillery armament and anti-aircraft missiles, such ships having full load displacement of 495 t (major dimensions – 57.5 x 10.4) carry lethal anti-submarine weapon such as two 533 mm coupled ASW torpedo tubes designed to fire target-seeking electric torpedoes, and two five-barreled rocket launchers guided by a sonar system with under-keel and submersible antennas. The ships were fitted with the then most advanced general-purpose radars and electronic warfare aids. Output of the main propulsion machinery plant con-sisting of two geared diesel engines was

20 thousand hp, rate of sailing – 28-30 knots. The ships were built by the Yaro-slavl-based shipyard.

n 1999, at the request of the Indian Defense Ministry, Almaz design bureau had developed technical design of updating a boat of project

1241RE, which involved the replace-ment of system P-20 with system Uran-E, installation of radar Pozitiv-E, and partial replacement of Russian equip-ment with the Indian counterparts or those made in other countries. Unfor-tunately, having ordered the technical design of updating, India had taken up the issue of working and service docu-mentation, which had later created seri-ous problems for building, testing and commissioning of the boats.

Two boats of the project were simul-taneously built by Mazagon Dock Ltd. and Goa Shipyard Ltd. Russian special-ists were entrusted with both building and commissioning of the boats prior to builders sea trials. The Russian arma-ment was handed over in 2003-2004 in the vicinity of Mumbai. Noteworthy is that one of the boats named Pralaya built by Goa shipyard had successfully per-formed volley fire with system Uran-E despite of surging sea.

The manufacture of BrahMos cruise missiles by BrahMos Aerospase Ltd joint venture is considered to be the largest joint project of the recent years.

Successfully tested aboard In-dian ships, the ship-board version of the system is known to be delivered

abroad. With this in mind, Almaz de-signers had proposed to mount the system aboard ships being converted and designed.

One of promising ships carrying an anti-ship missile system BrahMos/Sapphire as her primary armament is missile boat (light corvette) Scorpion of project 12300. The ship is intended to engage hostile combatant surface vessels, boats and convoys both on her own and in cooperation with naval striking forces.

Project of the ca 460 t displacement boat suggests two versions of main pro-pulsion machinery plant i.e. diesel plant two engines MTU 16V1163TB93) and diesel-gas-turbine plant (CODAG – a

gas-turbine engine GTU-12 plus two diesel engines). The main propulsion machinery plant provides full speed of 33 and 40 knots respectively, and cruis-ing endurance nearly 2 thousand miles. The boat’s basic armament includes four missiles positioned vertically in launcher-containers, 100 mm artillery system Universal-Puma (А-190-5P-10E). The boat is protected against hos-tile aircraft by means of an antiaircraft gun-missile integrated weapon system Kashtan. There are three options of the boat’s electronic warfare aids i.e. active radar Pozitiv-ME.1, radar target desig-nation systems Monument-E, Mineral-ME or Furke-E. The boat could also carry electronic warfare system MP-405-1E, jamming system PK-10, combat command information system Sigma-E, as well as the latest navigation and radio communication facilities.

The Design Bureau is prepared to offer the Indian party a project of con-verting Molniya-type missile corvettes to carry system BrahMos with the maximum potential utilization of the existing spaces and combat post, as well as the equipment of the main propul-sion machinery plant, electric power systems and other systems and mecha-nisms.

Confident of its strength and capabili-ties, TsMKB Almaz is prepared to con-tinue its cooperation with Indian Navy in the sphere of developing advanced marine fighting equipment.

Combatant craft of Soviet origin had become an excellent school for many generations of sailors

Missile corvette R46 Vipul of project 1241RE at naval parade in 2011

Small-size ASW ship of project 1241PE

Small-size ASW ship P33 Abhay of project 1241PE

Missile corvette K91 Pralaya of project 1241REM

The Indian vision of a missile corvette carrying BrahMos system (the model is displayed at the BrahMos Aerospace stand)

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By V. Yu. DorofeevChief Executive Officer of JSC SPMBM Malakhit

he St. Petersburg maritime bureau of machine engineering, Malakhit was founded back in 1948 for research and development of submarines with air-in-dependent power plants as well as other

deep submergence vehicles to carry advanced types of weapons.

Company’s designers were at the roots of a whole bunch of subs, including the ones that be-came Russian Navy’s pride and glory.

> B-67 submarine (Project V611), the first in the world to launch a ballistic

The World Ocean keeps lots of secrets and mysteries, hiding huge stocks of mineral deposits at its bottom. The world’s greatest powers are spending tremendous resources to explore the deep blue seas. Russia has earned a rightful place among the leading developers of manned deep submergence vehicles.

Malakhit has been Russia’s leading developer of deep submergence vehicles for years

LOOKINGDEEP

Т

missile, thus opening way for a new class of underwater weapon systems, the ballistic missile submarines.

> K-3 Project 627, the first Russian nuclear powered submarine (The Leninsky Komsomol), was built at Sevmash and commissioned in 1958.

> Project 661 nuclear propulsion submarine, the world’s first high-speed U-boat, attaining a top speed of over 44 kts. The sub carries Ametist cruise missiles, featuring underwater launch capability and has the body, cast of titanium alloys for the first time in the history of submarine production in Russia.

> Project 645 nuclear propulsion submarine, the Soviet Union’s first project with the liquid metal fuelled reactor.

> Project 705 (705K), the world’s first titanium alloy submarine with an automated missile and torpedo carousel launcher.

Soviet and Russian shipyards built lots of mul-tipurpose nuclear propulsion submarines of the second and third generations from 1967 to 2001, in-cluding Projects 671, 671РТ, 671РТM, 971). Project 885, the nuclear propulsion submarine of the fourth generation, is undergoing a series of tests now. Bu-reau’s other products that are worth mentioning are small-size and mini submarines of Piranha, Triton and Siren class.

For years of work Malakhit carried out more than 150 large-scale research and development pro-jects, giving birth to more than 300 submarines and

manned deep submergence research vehicles, as well as numerous test benches.

The Soviet Union started exploring deep blue seas in the middle of the last century, partly for the reasons of national defense, and partly be-cause of purely economic needs to increase the output of seafood, to produce more mineral re-sources on the sea shelf and to verify the results of fundamental research at sea. By late 1960s, the Soviet shipbuilding industry eventually set up a separate branch to develop and build deep sub-mergence vehicles (DSV) with limited endurance and range. All DSV projects that had been under way by that time were consolidated and handed over to Malakhit, which was eventually named the prime contractor in this segment of the shipbuild-ing business.

PRIMARY SPECIFICATIONS OF DSV SEVER-2

Description Unit of measurement

Value

Standard displacement

m3 37.9

Max length m 12.05

Max width athwartships m 2.64

Max height m 4.05

Max submergence depth

m 2,000

Underwater speed:level/vertical

Kts/(m/s) 2.5/(0.8)

Underwater range miles 16.3

Endurance hrs 72

Crew psnl. 3-4

Power plant battery

By late 1960s the Soviet shipbuilding industry launched an independent business to develop and produce manned deep submergence vehicles

Self propelled manned deep submergence vehicle Sever-2

OUR BRAND

Self propelled manned deep submergence vehicle Konsul

52 USC №1(9), 2012

analogs, thus being superior in terms of amount of information obtained per one dive, they had significantly bigger displacement and weight, which determined the need for carrier vessels with bigger deadweight, i.e. considerably higher financial resources. In other words, the operation of a huge carrier vessel and a submersible was far from cost-effective.

Understanding this, Malakhit developed a new class manned DSVs, represented by Rus and Konsul.

he self-sustaining manned deep submer-gence vehicle of the second generation, Rus was built by the Admiralty Shipyards in 2000 for research and technical opera-tions at depths down to 6,000 m in the

interests of the Navy SAR branch.The pressure hull can accommodate two or

three crewmembers, who either sit or lie in spe-

cialized chairs depending on the task they are performing. The main control and monitoring accessories are concentrated on the control pan-el, placed in front of the crew. The payload equip-ment is specially designed to be carried outside the main hull.

The hull, the ballast cisterns and the carry-ing elements of the external hull are of welded titanium alloy. The spherical pressure hull with the internal diameter of 2,100 mm, features an entrance hatch, three illuminators in the bow and two reinforced weld-ins for power conductors.

Spheroplasts were used broadly to reduce the displacement and ensure additional buoyancy. Indeed, it is next to impossible to reach the maxi-mal depth without introducing this material: the buoyancy of the pressure hull and other displac-ing elements of the vehicle was not enough to compensate their weight in water.

The bathyscaphe submerges with the help of a specialized system that consists of balance cis-terns and a bunker with cast iron pellets. When-ever necessary, the submersible could stop sub-merging and hover in water simply by disposing of excessive pellets, or continue the dive by taking in surrounding water into the balance cisterns. The DSV can emerge even with the full load of water in the cisterns, if all pellets are thrown away. This method requires the minimum consumption of electric power, which is necessary only to control the valves of the balance cisterns and the electro-magnetic latch of the pellet bunker.

Provided that the main requirement was to en-sure the smallest displacement, it was decided to dispose of payload systems as much as possible, to exclude the consumers of transformed power, and to make a lightweight filler.

The bathyscaphe maneuvers with the help of three rotary steering posts in the aft, two verti-cal thrusters in the pressure point, and a lateral thruster in the bow. Depending on the task, joint or individual operation of motion system ele-ments allows for sustained movement and maneu-vering of the vehicle in a broad variety of direc-tions. Steering is both manual and automatic.

In addition to the main equipment, Rus and Konsul have manipulators for underwater opera-tions with replaceable tools, as well as a sling ar-rangement to handle cargoes up to 200 kg. There are also provisions to attach a TV guided tethered unmanned vehicle, used whenever it is necessary to explore and study hard-to-access and danger-ous objects.

The fleet of deep submergence vehicles was reinforced by the Konsul bathyscaphe, also devel-oped by Malakhit and built by Admiralty Ship-yards.

It was the first example of the third generation DSV made in Russia. Unlike its predecessor, Konsul

PRIMARY SPECIFICATIONS OF DSV POISK-6:

Description Unit of measurement

Value

Standard displacement

m3 355

Max length m 29

Max width athwartships m 6.5

Max height m 8.2

Max submergence depth m 6,000

Underwater speed:level/vertical

Kts/(m/s) 2.8/(0.5)

Underwater range

miles 15

Endurance hrs 72

Crew psnl. 3

Power plant battery

Manned deep submergence vehicle Poisk-6

Malakhit started the work on deep submer-gence projects with the upgrade of a self-propelled manned submersible Sever-2, developed by the Rubin central design bureau of maritime vehicles in 1968 and built by the Novo-Admiralty Works for the Ministry of Fisheries. They altogether undertook to develop a prototype of a new DSV, called Sever-2bis. The vehicles were delivered to the state client after successful sea trials in 1975 and 1976.

What particular kind of a deep submergence ve-hicle was Sever? Its cylindrical pressure hull was in-built into a streamlined outer hull, with two vertical propellers for vertical and one for level maneuvers. They were necessary to effectively move in water and bypass obstacles. The DSV could follow the sea bottom on the move and sort of hover at a constant distance from the seafloor at halt.

Sever-2 was used to make a precise map of the Black Sea bottom, and measure water saltiness and temperature. Moreover, a series of important research of various kinds of fish was held in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans with the help of this submersible.

alakhit’s next project was Poisk-2, built in 1975. It was designed for hydrographic and hydrologic opera-tions, including seafloor sounding and measuring of depths, tempera-

ture, sea current speed, conductivity, saltiness, transparency, light intensity, biological lumines-cence, and sound speed changes in water. The DSV also made some geophysical experiments possible, including gravimetric and magnetic map-ping and magnetic field measuring. Poisk-2 was equipped with a navigation set, a sonar log, an automatic control system, a data recorder, some research and electronic systems and underwater television. It could take stereo photography and video of some parts of the seafloor, lift cargoes up to 400 kg on a sling, and take seafloor samples with the help of a manipulator from the maximum sub-mergence depth.

The system was employed at the Burun-Tabyisk canyon (down to 402 m), Chokhorsk canyon (142 m), Rioni canyon (313 m) and Supsa canyon (192 m) in the eastern part of the Black Sea. It was used to reveal the causes of shore erosion in the Cauca-sus, which made it possible to recommend ways to protect the sea coasts.

In parallel with the Poisk-2 development, Malakhit was working on the country’s first bathy-

scaphe for research and technological operations at a depth of 6,000 meters in the interests of hydro-graphic and SAR branches of the Soviet Navy. The vehicle was built at the Admiralty Shipyards in 1985 and received a designation Poisk-6.

On August 20, 1985 the submersible success-fully dove to 6,015 meters at the Kuril-Kamchatka trench.

Poisk-6 was the last in the first-generation series of DSVs. Despite the fact that Soviet bathy-scaphes had higher payloads than existing foreign

PRIMARY SPECIFICATIONS OF DSV POISK-2:

Description Unit of measurement

Value

Standard displacement

m3 65

Max length m 16.33

Max width athwartships m 2.5

Max height m 5.1

Max submergence depth

m 2,000

Underwater speed:level/vertical

Kts/(m/s) 3/(0.6)

Underwater range

miles 25

Endurance hrs 72

Crew psnl. 3

Power plant battery

On August 20, 1985 Poisk-6 submerged to 6,015 m into the Kuril-Kamchatka trench for the first time in the history of the Russian Navy

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Manned deep submergence vehicle Poisk-2

OUR BRAND

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has far-reaching systems of communication, com-mand and control, which include:

> a small-size navigation and sonar system offering precise measurement of course, coordinates, roll and pitch;

> a stable underwater voice communication system, effective at ranges, several times longer than that of existing rivals;

> a cutting edge digital movement and accessory control system with seafloor following feature, and fully automatic visual and instrumental search and surveillance;

> a digital television system for monitoring vehicle operations at all depth including the maximum one.

ore than that, unlike other deep sub-mergence vehicles of both Russian and foreign origin, Konsul can deploy transponder beacons on the seafloor to designate underwater objects for

further exploration without wasting time for re-peated search.

The scope of functions that can be performed with the help of the submersible is really impressive, and includes:

> underwater technical and search and rescue operations;

> operations on sunk or seafloor objects at depth of 6,000 m;

> transponder beacon emplacement for object identification;

> detection and examination of small-size objects on seafloor;

> handling of external payloads up to 200 kg on sling to and from 6,000-m depths;

> taking samples of seafloor, water, concretions and seafloor objects including archeological finds;

> sling securing on underwater objects using the manipulator for further lifting by a carrier vessel;

> visual examination of underwater obstacles, as well as TV, photo and video shooting.

The official trials of the Konsul deep submer-gence vehicle were successfully ended on May 14, 2011, when the bathyscaphe submerged to the depth of 6,270 m in the Northern Atlantic.

For decades of work the St. Petersburg design bureau Malakhit fostered a cancellation of Russian DSV developers in close cooperation and part-nership with other research organizations of the shipbuilding industry. High professionalism of engi-neers, factory workers and suppliers of spare parts and accessories made it possible to produce unique underwater vehicles, which seem to become more and more in demand as far as the exploration of the World Ocean is concerned.

PRIMARY SPECIFICATIONS OF DSV RUS:

Description Unit of measurement

Value

Standard displacement

m3 24.6

Max length m 8.4

Max width athwartships

m 3.9

Max height m 3.85

Pressure hull diameter

m 2.1

Max submergence depth

m 6,000

Underwater speed:level/vertical

Kts/(m/s) 3/(0.7)

Endurance hrs 72

Crew psnl. 2-3

Power plant battery

Design life yr 20

For years of work, the St. Petersburg design bureau Malakhit carried out

more than 150 large-scale research and development projects, giving birth to

more than 300 submarines and manned deep submergence research vehicles, as well as numerous test benches.

Self-propelled manned deep submergence vehicle Rus

OUR BRAND

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56 USC №1(9), 2012