The keel of Stalingrad, the seventh nuclear-powered icebreaker being built to the Project 22220 design, has been laid at the Baltic Shipyard. Once commissioned, it will become the ninth vessel of the Russian nuclear fleet. The icebreakers of the Project 22220 series feature unprecedented performance, being capable of breaking through the ice up to 3 meters thick.
The icebreaker is named after the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd). The Battle of Stalingrad, one of the major decisive battles of World War II between the Soviet Red Army and the German Wehrmacht, was fought in the city and its vicinity from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, ending in a Red Army victory.
The keel-laying ceremony was timed to coincide with the start of Operation Uranus: on November 19, 1942, the Soviet Red Army launched its counteroffensive in Stalingrad.
“I am confident that the new icebreaker, Stalingrad, will wear this proud name with dignity. Working in the harsh Arctic conditions, breaking a path through the ice, it will become another symbol of our people’s talent, strength, and creative energy, and their ability to set and fulfill the most daring plans and withstand the hardest times,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said via video link at the ceremony.
“You have set for us a new goal of establishing the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor to incorporate the Northern Sea Route. This is a task of immense, planetary scale. Solving it will strengthen Russia’s leadership, ensure the implementation of national projects in the high latitudes, and lay the foundations for the logistics sovereignty of the Russian Federation,” said Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev, addressing the President.
During the ceremony, Battle of Stalingrad veteran Pavel Vinokurov, who turned 103 in November, handed Alexey Likhachev a capsule containing soil from Volgograd. It will be kept on board the icebreaker.
The design of the Stalingrad icebreaker features red and white tones. The sides of the superstructure are white, while the front features a mural with the white star of the Hero City on a red background, superimposed with a red silhouette of The Motherland Calls sculpture.
The red-and-white color scheme of the Stalingrad superstructure also serves a functional purpose: it allows the ship to be distinguished from a distance from the Leningrad, another icebreaker of the same series currently under construction at the Baltic Shipyard, which features a blue and white superstructure.
“It is a great joy to define the look of a nuclear icebreaker. And the fact that the Stalingrad icebreaker is being laid down in the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory and the nuclear industry adds extra significance to my task,” said Vladimir Ruzhnikov, the design author and Head of the Art and Design Department at Rosatom’s Communications Center.
At the time of keel-laying, the Stalingrad was 4% complete, with the first three sections assembled. The icebreaker differs slightly from its predecessors, as improvements are made to each subsequent vessel based on the previous experience. However, the main features of Project 22220 vessels remain unchanged. These include a dual-draft design, two RITM-200 reactors, and an alternating current electric propulsion system with asynchronous motors. Such icebreakers are capable of breaking through the ice up to 3 meters thick.
Two other Project 22220 nuclear icebreakers — the Chukotka and the Leningrad — are currently under construction at the Baltic Shipyard.
The Chukotka is already being prepared for mooring trials. In November, Elemash (part of Rosatom) completed the manufacturing of reactor cores for the ship’s both reactors ahead of schedule. In October, a large superstructure block consisting of ten sections weighing over 200 metric tons was installed on the Chukotka; it will house the pits for the icebreaker’s auxiliary power unit. In the same month, a pre-outfitted accommodation block weighing about 300 metric tons was installed. Following the assembly of the hull structures, the Baltic Shipyard workers will proceed with fitting out the interior spaces: cabins, the mess hall, the dining room, recreation zones, and other areas.
In November, a backup diesel generator weighing 38.5 tonnes with a capacity of 2,000 kW was installed on the port side of the Leningrad. The starboard backup generator will be installed next. The vessel is estimated to be 20% complete.
Construction times for nuclear icebreakers are decreasing thanks to the shift to the prefab construction technology. While the lead ship of the series took seven years to build, the next one, Yakutia, took less than five. The plan is to build the Chukotka in five years, and the Leningrad and Stalingrad in four and a half years.
Additionally, the Zvezda Shipyard continues construction of the Rossiya (Project 10510) super-icebreaker, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2029.
Nuclear icebreakers ensure safe vessel escorts through ice along the Arctic routes of the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor, stretching from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok.
The Russian nuclear fleet currently comprises eight icebreakers, four of which are of the latest Project 22220 design: Arktika (commissioned in 2020), Sibir (2021), Ural (2022), and Yakutia (2024).
Photo by: United Shipbuilding Corporation, kremlin.ru
