Thursday, March 29, 2018

Russian navy’s Arctic patrol vessels suffer delays of 3-4 years

President Putin almost looks upon the Arctic as his pet project, a really large pet project but his, and the fact the government budget can't come up with the loot to pay for the ships is an intriguing insight into Russia's true financial state. I guess even the Autocrat of all the Russias President of Russia has limits.
From The Barents Observer:
Originally supposed to be delivered by the end of 2020, the two ice-class patrol ships of Project 23550 are now postponed till 2023 or 2024, General Director at the Admiralty Shipyard, Aleksandr Buzakov says to TASS.

Buzakov explains the delay with “financial factors” and points to the state armament plan for 2018-2027 signed by President Vladimir Putin a few months ago.

The two vessels are unlike any other classes of Russian naval vessels. The two ships will combine tug capabilities, icebreaking and patrol voyages in the Arctic. Multi-tasking flexibility options enable the new class to carry out a wide range of tasks in the Arctic zone, Russia’s Defense Ministry informed in 2016 when the contract with the shipyard was signed.

The vessels can break through ice up to 1,5 metres thick.

“Patrol ship of project 23550 has no world analogues,” the ministry said. Though, the drawing of the vessel has clear similarities to the design of the Norwegian Coast Guard vessel “K/V Svalbard”....MORE
North Korea's Kim Jong-Il had fifty-something titles including "Glorious General, Who Descended From Heaven" and "Dear Leader, Who is a Perfect Incarnation of the Appearance that a Leader Should Have," but I think the later Tsars  had him beat in number if not in poetry, as noted elsewhere:
"By the Grace of God, We, NN, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, Moscow, Kiev, Vladimir, Novgorod; Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of Chersonese Taurian, Tsar of Georgia; Lord of Pskov and Grand Prince of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, Finland; Prince of Estland,....."
It goes on and on listing the territories and actually ends with:
"...hereditary Sovereign and Ruler of the Circassian and Mountain Princes and of others; Sovereign of Turkestan, Heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Dietmarsen, Oldenburg, and so forth, and so forth, and so forth."
In future I'll just go with 'Putin' and avoid the temptation to do the Autocrat of All the Russias thing.