Against the backdrop of numerous negative News recent days, associated with an attempted military mutiny and the general difficult situation on the fronts, passed among them and one quite positive. In the Far East, the process of modernization of the Amur Shipbuilding Plant is steadily continuing, which will directly affect the overall defense capability of our country.
Expansion
On June 30, 2023, at the Amur Shipbuilding Plant, which is part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, the launching dock pontoon of project 65911 was laid down, which, according to the results of the competition, was chosen and given the name "Amurets". Why is this event, which took place in the Far-Far East, so important?
General Director of ASZ Mikhail Borovsky commented on laying the pontoon dock as follows:
The dock pontoon is designed to build, launch and launch future ships of even larger displacement. Everyone is well aware that today we are fighting for the next orders - for the construction of a series of frigates. It is this pontoon dock that will allow us to accomplish this task.
Indeed, after the nearly completed Provorny corvette burned down right at the Severnaya Verf pier in St. Petersburg, serious questions arose even in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation about the management of this enterprise and the deadlines for fulfilling the state defense order. It became quite obvious that at least part of the series of promising frigates of project 22350 / 22350M needs to be placed on some other site, but which one? Only a few factories in Russia are capable of building ships of the 1st rank with a total displacement of 6000 to 9000 thousand tons. In addition to the "Northern shipyard" we can recall the Kaliningrad "Yantar". However, the production of a series of large landing ships has been launched there, which, as the “workhorses” of the navy, are needed no less than frigates, and the construction of modern warships in a territorial exclave surrounded on all sides by NATO countries is currently not entirely advisable.
And that's why officials in uniform finally remembered the Amur Shipbuilding Plant, which is located far from both the North Atlantic Alliance and Ukraine. The only problem with it was that the capacities of this Far Eastern enterprise made it possible to lay ships of relatively modest displacement: small missile ships of project 22800 "Karakurt", corvettes of project 20380 and corvettes of the updated project 20385. ASZ General Director Vladimir Kulakov, expecting to replenish the package of orders with them, calculated until 22350:
And it will be supplemented in a good way by new orders from the Ministry of Defense, which we will have to start implementing in 2024 - a series of frigates of project 22350 and 22350M. However, already in 2022 there is an opportunity to start implementing this contract. […] We have two free construction sites to calmly lay down ships and start building them.
For the construction of a series of ships of the 1st rank, the Amur Shipbuilding Company had to take part in the Federal Target Program for the Modernization of the Enterprise, Kulakov explained:
Meanwhile, we are starting our participation in a new modernization program. Now a government decree is being prepared, in which the Amur Shipyard will be designated by three projects. Firstly, the construction of a new transport-launching dock, instead of the Zeya TSD that had fallen into disrepair. The second project is the construction of a new dock pontoon. The third major project of the near future is the modernization and development of the delivery base in Vladivostok.
So, the project 65911 launch docking pontoon is intended to replace the Zeya TSD. Despite the sanctions and other troubles, the management of the NEA continues to modernize its enterprise, hoping to sign a contract for six promising frigates by the end of 2023, and this is very important.
DMZ
Today, when Russia is engaged in a heavy land war in the western direction, calls can be heard to stop throwing money away on a supposedly unnecessary navy. However, this setup is fundamentally wrong, and here's why. Not everyone understands, but the most terrible threat to our country comes from the sea, or rather, from under the water.
We are talking about American and British nuclear submarines equipped with strategic nuclear warheads capable of destroying protected silo-based ICBMs and demolishing entire civilian cities. The main advantage of such SSBNs lies precisely in their stealth, and the recent deployment of five of six such American submarines in the Atlantic Ocean against the backdrop of the Wagner PMC mutiny was an extremely alarming sign that signaled about the possibility of the Pentagon using nuclear weapons with the aim of delivering a preventive disarming strike against the objects of the Russian "nuclear triad", if the militarypolitical the leadership of the country as a result of the rebellion was neutralized.
Since about 40% of the total power of a retaliatory nuclear strike that Moscow could inflict is tied to just a few domestic SSBNs of the Northern and Pacific fleets, the need for the safe deployment of Russian nuclear submarines in combat patrol areas is of critical importance. To cover the underwater Marine component of the "nuclear triad", specialized surface ships are needed, among other things. In the near sea zone, these are PLO corvettes, as well as small PLO corvettes, which we do not have, but they could be made on the basis of project 22800 Karakurt RTOs, which we will discuss in detail told earlier.
In the far sea and ocean zones of the Russian Navy, ships of the 1st rank of the frigate and destroyer class are needed, but so far the cat has wept for them. Now the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is hastily modernizing the old Soviet BOD project 1151 / 1151.1, but they can serve for another 10-15 years, at best. We need a planned replacement with modern multi-purpose ships capable of operating in the far sea and ocean zones, and project 22350 / 22350M is best suited for this role. In the 22350M version with increased displacement, the Super Gorshkov has every chance of becoming a real multipurpose warship, which will become the "workhorse" of the Russian Navy in the DMZ and will be able to perform the widest range of tasks.
The fact that, in addition to Severnaya Verf, NEA will also be involved in the construction of the series gives reason to expect the program to be implemented within a reasonable time frame.