Sevmash (photo: http://www.sevmash.ru)
It’s tighter in Sevmash’s construction hall, but there’s still plenty of space.
Russian submarine producer Sevmash released the following noteworthy statement on 28 March:
Uniting forces for nuclear-powered submarine construction
For the realization of the state arms program and effective construction of modern nuclear submarines, buildingway-delivery production is being organized at Sevmash.
The Testing and Order Delivery Directorate (UISZ) is joining Sevmash’s two largest buildingway departments — 50 and 55. The new structure is needed to increase the tempo of modern nuclear submarines construction (recently a significant number of submarines was laid down), guarantee evenness in labor force distribution, and promote the transfer of production experience. Recall that the buildingway of department 50 was occupied with civilian production in the 1990s: specifically, it built the unique ice-resistant maritime platform ‘Prirazlomaya.’ Last year the department came back to its core business: modern nuclear-powered submarines were laid down here. As the chief of buildingway-delivery production Sergey Novoselov announced, a management system for the new large-scale sub-unit is currently being formed in accordance with the general director’s order.
Press-service OAO “PO ‘Sevmash.'”
For curiosity’s sake, here’s Bellona.org’s take on the ‘Prirazlomaya’ drilling platform. Not flattering.
What is this buildingway-delivery production? It sounds like Sevmash knows once it launches some submarines now under construction, it’ll face a fitting-out bottleneck . . . perhaps some pre-delivery work will now occur on the ways prior to launch.
Various media outlets recently noted Russia’s increased submarine production and declared that it is building four nuclear-powered boats (two SSBNs and two SSNs) for the first time in post-Soviet history. Examples can be found here and here.
But a bit of research, e.g. here, here, here, and here, would have shown that three SSBNs and four SSNs — seven unfinished boats — are now in the hall at Sevmash. Six laid down since 2012. They are, of course, proyekt 955A Borey-class SSBNs and proyekt 885M Yasen-class SSNs.
Official reports from Sevmash early last year indicated that the builder plans to lay down two more Boreys and two more Yasens in 2015. That would make a rather whopping 11 submarines under construction.
The numbers seven and 11 hark back to the halcyon days of Soviet production: to the 1980s when Sevmash built Typhoon-, Delta IV-, Oscar-, and Akula-class submarines. Early in that long ago decade, Moscow built four boats at a time, toward mid-decade — six or seven, by the time Gorbachev came to power — eight, before 1990 as many as 10 simultaneously. Then production dropped to virtually zero in the mid-1990s.
We should remember, however, that Russia’s submarines under construction could turn out to be proverbial “birds in a bush.” The navy much prefers to have completed boats in hand.
So what stands in the way of completing them? A number of things potentially. Skilled labor, materials, and component shortages, finding domestic substitutes for sanctioned foreign inputs, and high interest rates and high inflation complicate the already pricey business of building new submarines.
Russian Defense Policy 