Russian Navy: Import Substitution and Competition
The International Naval Show, IMDS-2015, which took place in St. Petersburg from 1 to 5 in July, was completed. The 62 official delegations from 46 countries, more than 424 participating companies took part in the show; an air show was held for ordinary visitors with the participation of the Russian Knights aerobatic team. In addition to the opportunity for visitors to look at the latest and promising developments of domestic (almost no foreign companies this time, for obvious reasons) manufacturers of military and civilian products, one way or another connected with shipbuilding, several quite important statements were made at MVMS-2015 mainly the commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy Viktor Chirkov. Let us try to sum up the results of the past sea show and find out in which direction the Russian Navy is developing, the main problems and challenges.
Import substitution
At the exhibition, there was a noticeable desire of many manufacturers to present products, the lion's share of which had previously been purchased by the Russian defense industry abroad (mainly in the EU and Ukraine). This was especially true of marine diesel power plants. For example, Zvezda OJSC presented a new M150 Pulsar diesel engine. However, there is no information on which engines will be installed on the unfinished ships of projects 11356 and 22350. The reason for this, apparently, is that the declared characteristics of the new Russian power plants do not correspond to the real ones - those that are required the fleet. This is confirmed by dissatisfaction with the domestic marine engine industry, expressed by Navy Commander-in-Chief Viktor Chirkov and Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. Against this background, stood the stand of the German company MTU, which stopped delivering engines to the Russian fleet due to sanctions, but, nevertheless, arrived at the salon.
In addition to the engines, a noticeable number of various electronic components were exposed - boards, monitors, input devices, etc. - most of them had a somewhat “clumsy” look, but this is not so important for the military sector, where reliability is most important, but in the civilian sector such products will be problematic, given the fierce competition.
Against the background of the above, and with reduced funding, due to problems in the Russian economy, the task of quickly creating Russian analogues purchased earlier in the West (there will be fewer problems with Ukrainian products, since the basic technologies are Soviet) components becomes a daunting task. Nevertheless, there is no other way - paying for the omission of past years will have a probable shift in the implementation of some projects and additional costs.
Words and statements are more than deeds
The situation is, in general, familiar. But nevertheless, this does not become less unpleasant. This time, the commander in chief of the Navy made the loudest statements. Not all of them are consistent, the part does not “fit in” with what was said before. For example, the anaerobic (air independent) submarines promised by Viktor Chirkov last year were to appear in 2017 year, but in the new statement that was made after the ceremony of transferring the 636.3 project “Old Oskol” to the Black Sea Fleet, the start date of their construction was shifted to “ after 2018 of the year. " The statement by Viktor Chirkov about the construction of 18 new 22800 small missile ships (ISCs) in the coming years, armed with universal launchers for anti-ship and cruise missiles, and having a displacement of just 500 tons, was skeptical in a personal conversation with an anonymous source from the shipbuilding industry . According to him, this ship is still in a rather “raw” state, and the mass of the weapons used has already exceeded 700 tons, and there are no real, supported by anything other than words, expectations regarding the purchase of such a large series of similar IRs.
Large-scale talks about the construction of an aircraft carrier also still have little factual information - nevertheless, competition for a possible giant project, without a doubt, with huge funding, is already in full swing, despite the fact that real construction work will not start before 2025. . The Krylov State Research Center (KGNC) demonstrated its layout concept, and the head of the state defense order department of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), Anatoly Shlemov, in an interview with Lente.ru stated that according to the projects of an aircraft carrier and a large ship of the ocean zone (the destroyer according to the Leader program ) studies are carried out in the Northern PKB and Nevsky PKB, and that “everyone should go about their business”. So, a serious struggle is planned between the USC and the independent state-controlled center, which in general is very useful.
Export
Despite a large number of foreign delegations visiting the salon, no export contracts were signed. However, it is worth noting that Rosoboronexport initially did not count on this. Nevertheless, several countries showed interest in Russian armaments, which may allow maintaining a package of orders for our marine equipment at a high level (now the amount of signed contracts exceeds $ 5 billion). Interesting news The negotiations of the Iranian delegation headed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Navy, Habibolla Sayari, with Viktor Chirkov began: there is some evidence that the Iranian side is interested in supplying Russian naval military equipment. More vague information is available about the interest of Saudi Arabia, which is still busy exploring Russian naval equipment and weapons. In the meantime, the Saudis are more interested in buying the Iskander-E operational tactical complex, and Rosoboronexport Deputy General Director Igor Sevastyanov said at IMDS-2015 that, under certain conditions, such a deal is possible.
And lastly, a bit of “Ukrainian” subject matter - Russia intends to fulfill the contract for the supply of 4-x amphibious assault ships of the 12322 Zubr project to China (Ukraine’s 2 ship has already supplied), since the More factory is located in Crimea, which entered in the Russian Federation.
Prospects
Despite the presence of a considerable number of problems, Russia nevertheless began the production of a noticeable number of warships, including quite large surface ships — corvettes and frigates. And if the prospects for building a full-fledged aircraft carrier are rather vague, then building a destroyer of a new generation, comparable in weaponry to a missile cruiser, does not seem an impossible task, although a few years ago it would be an unobvious statement. Problems are a normal phenomenon given that in fact many industries associated with the construction of surface warships were simply destroyed to the ground and are now being recreated from scratch. In the conditions of reduced funding, the important role will be played by the prioritization and selection of optimal development paths, which, judging by the number of layouts and sketches presented on IMDS-2015, are many. In such conditions, fair competition conditions, which, unfortunately, are not always respected, become one of the key factors. As for the submarine fleet, the situation is very good here. There is a construction of a large number of both nuclear and diesel-electric submarines, work is already underway to determine the appearance of a new multi-purpose nuclear submarine, even considering that fairly modern submarines of this class are being built - the YN-M 855 project.
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