Amur Shipyard Quits Building Submarines

12.10.2011 JSC Amur Shipyard (Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Far East) will shut down nuclear submarine building activities after leasing out SSN Nerpa to Indian Navy, reported Interfax referring to Roman Trotsenko, president of JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC).

According to him, abandonment of submarine building at Amur Shipyard is related to shallow waters of Amur River which is used by submarines to reach the sea for trials. In prospect, the yard will mostly build civil ships and Project 20380/20385 corvettes for Russian Navy.

Established in 1936, Amur Shipyard was primarily specialized in construction of submarines and civil vessels. According to the shipyard's statistics, it has built 56 nuclear-powered submarines, 41 diesel submarines, and 137 civil ships of different classes and purposes. Through its history, the yard has built only 36 surface warships. Among submarines launched by Amur Shipyard were Project 877 Paltus diesel subs, Project 671RTM Schuka and Project 971 Schuka-B nuclear-powered submarines.

The latest sub built by Amur Shipyard is K-152 Nerpa which will be leased to India early in 2012. The submarine was built under Project 971I Schuka-B. Presently, SSN Nerpa passes joint Russian-Indian trials. Nerpa is the third-generation submarine. Her underwater displacement is 12,800 tons. K-152 has max speed up to 30 knots and dives down to 600 meters. Nerpa is armed with four 533-mm and four 650-mm torpedo tubes.

Editor's comment

Trotsenko's argumentation regarding reasons of shutting down nuclear submarine building program at Amur Shipyard looks at least unpersuasive. In years past, the yard has built an array of submarines of various projects, and depths of Amur River have never been an obstacle. By the way, draft of present-day nuclear submarines and corvettes Trotsenko wants to focus on have minor difference. For instance, mean draft of a Project 971 sub is about 9.7 meters, and a Project 20380 corvette has draft of about 8 meters. Critical depth of Amur fairway varies from 5.8 to 7.2 meters which is insufficient both for nuclear subs and corvettes.