Janes is reporting the Azerbaijan Coast Guard is procuring twelve new Israeli designed vessels to be built in Azerbaijan. These include six 62 meter OPVs (203 foot, the Greek ships of this class are about 450 tons full load) based on the Sa’ar 4.5 missile corvette and six 31.2 meter (102 foot, 95 ton) Shaldag patrol vessels.
SHALDAG Fast Patrol Craft (earlier, slightly smaller version)
Azerbaijan is one of five countries bordering the land locked (and reportedly oil rich) Caspian Sea. The others are Russia to the North, Iran to the South, and Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan on the other side of the Caspian. Russia has several missile corvettes and Iran has both corvettes and small submarines in the Caspian.
Azerbaijan’s total EEZ and total internal area is only 86,600 sq. km. The comparable figure for the US is over 250 times larger.
I’m afraid this may be another area where, in the not too distant future, Americans will get a geography lesson via troubling news reports.
MarineLog is reporting that a German yard is building two icebreaking rescue and salvage vessels for the Russian Ministry of Transport, to be used by “the Russian State Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (SMRCC) for patrols and rescues on the northern Polar Sea route.” The ships will be 88 m x 18.5 m and will be powered by two 3.5 MW Azipods. The ships are larger but the power is very close to that of the Macknaw (WLBB-30) (73 m x 17.8 m) which uses two 3.4MW Azipods.
We have talked about Azipods before, but if you haven’t seen them before, they are quite impressive in the maneuverability they provide (see the video above). gCaptain reports the contract for the entire propulsion and electric generation system for the two almost 10,000 horsepower ships was $25M. To put this in perspective, the Wind Class icebreakers had 12,000 HP.
Two of these ships are 550 ton ASUW and AAW missile equipped Molniya Class Corvettes like the one pictured above, a development of the older Turantul Class Corvette. The other four are closer to 110 foot WPBs, if a bit more heavily armed.
Costa Rica is apparently concerned. I’ve got a soft spot for Costa Rica. Their only armed service is their Coast Guard, and they have had some run-ins with Nicaragua in the past.
NavyRecognition is reporting Russia’s Coast Guard will deploy four new ships (apparently icebreakers) to exercise sovereignty in Arctic waters.
Additionally,
“Eleven border protection facilities are to be built in the Arctic, while automated surveillance systems are to be deployed in the area as part of the Russian Federation State Border Protection program for 2012-2020, an FSB representative said.“
The Russian Federal Security (FSB) Coast Guard (successor organization to the Maritime Boarder Troops of the KGB), has begun a program of 25 ships that they rate as “second rank patrol ships” (WMEC?). They are reportedly designed “for protection of Russian sea border in the Black Sea and would maintain security of Winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi.” They will replace ships built in the Soviet era.
Ships of the class are pictured here (broken link–Chuck) in the second, third, and forth photo. Below that are photos of an ice strengthened patrol vessel that appears to be based on an oil industry supply vessel.
Lead ship of the project, Rubin (501), laid down Sept 3, 2007, launched June 26, 2009, which was handed over to Black Sea/Azov Frontier Service Dept in Sept 2010 “has completely satisfied all expectations.”
“…in Oct 2011 unmanned helicopter system Horizon Air S-100 (this may be the Schiebel (Austria) S-100) that is also deployed on the French OPV L’Adroit–Chuck) designed for search, detection, and identification of small-size fast-speed sea targets at the distance of 150 km from the platform was effectively tested on board Rubin. Besides, ships of this project are equipped with automated control system, advanced navigation and comm equipment. Crew living conditions are unusually comfortable; there are sauna and swimming pool on board.
Full displacement of the Project 22460 patrol ship is about 650 tons, length is 62.5 meters (205′), beam is 11 meters (36′), draft is 3.8 meters (12.5′), full speed in quiet water is up to 30 knots, operating range is 3,500 miles, endurance is up to 30 days. Armament includes one 30-mm six-barreled gun mount AK-630 and two 12.7-mm machine guns. The crew is 20 men. The ship is equipped with stern inclined slip for rigid inflatable boat, a heliport for light helicopter like Ka-226(a helo a bit smaller than the H-65–Chuck) or UAV, and a quick-mounted folding hangar.
The second ship, Brilliant, and was laid down May 12, 2010, and the third, Zhemchug, is currently under construction. Construction on the remaining ships is expected to continue through 2020.
While these ships are reported to be only 650 tons full load, the dimensions are close to or exceed those of a 210 (210.5’x34’x10.5′) so I find it hard to believe they are not close to 1,000 tons full load.
The AK-630 gun is a real beast, a six barrel 30 mm similar to the GAU-8 Avenger, the gun on the A-10 tank killer aircraft, which is also used as part of the Dutch developed “Goalkeeper” CIWS. Close in, it could be very effective in an anti-surface role as well.
The Naval Institute has a good review of recent developments in the Russian Arctic, written by Captain Lawson Brigham, USCG (ret.).
Looks like the Russians are opening up this formerly closed area for commerce and exploitation. Moreover they have settled their boundary dispute with Norway and their handling of hydro-carbon deposit that straddles the new Russia-Norway EEZ boundary will provide precedence for handling other similar situations. The infrastructure appears to be growing rapidly and year round operations are planned.
(Note the US and Canada still have an outstanding dispute over a boundary line in the Arctic.)
Ryan Erickson has published the Arctic SAR boundaries on the Naval Institute Blog. Looking at this chart got me thinking about ice capable ships. That of course lead to looking for similar information on Antarctica, so this is going to be a survey of What nations are interested in the Polar regions? and What do their ice capable fleets look like?
Interesting Article here from Christian Science Monitor updating the Russian (and Canadian) positions on claims in the Arctic, including an expected 380,000 square mile continental shelf claim by the Russians and a statement that they are planning on building six new icebreakers.
We already looked at a comparison of the Russian Security Service’s counterpart of the National Security Cutter with the Coast Guard version. Thought some of you might be interested to see what their version of a Fast Response Cutter looks like.
The first of the class Svetlyak class were delivered in 1988 and they are still in production. The little ships comes in three versions. The most numerous is a patrol version for the Security Service (Project 10410–photo), there is a cruise missile equipped version for the Navy (Project 10411), and an export version (Project 10412) apparently with MTU engines in lieu of the Russian diesels. The Russians have 26 of these, the Slovenians one lightly armed version (more here), and the Vietnamese have two with at least two, possibly four, more on order, armed like the Russian Security Service vessels.
Comparing the two classes, the Webber Class, with it’s high bow, certainly looks more sea worthy, and it’s boat appears much more ready to launch quickly in heavy weather.
The Russian design is slightly larger (375 tons vice 353), slightly faster (30 vs 28), and slightly longer (163 ft vs 154). They have three engines and three shafts instead of two and about 88% more power. They also have a bit larger crew with accommodations for 28 (vs 22-24). Again the USCG vessel has the advantage in range (2,500 nmi vs 2,200–some sources say as little as 1,300). Continue reading →
We already looked at a comparison of the Russian Security Service’s 
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
