Russia's Vyborg shipyard recently held a grand groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction of the second Project 23550 border icebreaker patrol ship "Dzerzhinsky". This shows that Russia's military presence and interests in the Arctic region are highly valued, due to the growing competition between NATO and Russia in the region, coupled with the fact that the Arctic shipping lanes continue to set record volumes.
This 114-meter-long, 18-meter-wide, 6-meter-deep draft, standard displacement of 6,800 tons, and full load displacement of up to 8,500 tons of the Type 23550 icebreaking patrol ship is comparable to the "Dreadnought" class large anti-submarine ships. This icebreaker has a strong icebreaker capacity and is capable of crushing up to 1The 7-metre ice layer, which functions as both a tug and a patrol vessel, provides a solid guarantee for the safety of shipping in the Arctic region, not only helping to protect and monitor the Arctic's precious water resources, but also playing an important role in escort, rescue operations and special cargo transportation.
The most striking highlight of this Project 23550 icebreaking patrol ship is its powerful armament. The ship is armed with an AK-176M naval gun, two AK-630M close-in guns, and a 3M-47 "Bend" short-range anti-aircraft missile. In addition, there is a multi-mission area behind the *** deck, which can accommodate dinghies, mission loads, and other equipment. In particular, the area can accommodate 4 containers with integrated "Caliber" cruise missiles (up to 16 cruise missiles and even Zircon hypersonic missiles).
This gives this icebreaker patrol ship a land attack capability of more than 1,500 kilometers, which is unique in the world. Currently, four icebreaking patrol ships of Project 23550 have been built. "Ivan Papanin" and "Nikolai Zubov" belonged to the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy, while the Russian border guards purchased "Dzerzhinsky" and "Buran".
It is worth mentioning that the patrol ships of the border guards have a double hangar design, the larger hangar can accommodate a Ka-27 size *** and the slightly smaller hangar can accommodate a Ka-226 size *** or UAV. This design makes this type of patrol ship more flexible when performing rescue, surveillance and other tasks. In the Arctic region, Russia's rivalry with NATO is intensifying. Tensions in the Arctic have recently escalated again.
The United States announced a unilateral expansion of its territory, increasing the territorial area of potentially resource-rich areas of the continental shelf of the Arctic, Atlantic, Bering Sea, Pacific Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Mariana Islands by 1 million square kilometers. The move tripled the area of U.S. undersea sovereignty claims to nearly the size of the entire state of California. To this, Russia reacted quickly.
In addition to maintaining the world's largest icebreaker fleet, with a total size of 35-45 nuclear-powered and conventionally powered icebreakers, Russia has also announced the formation of a new hybrid aviation corps to protect the Arctic shipping lanes and energy shipping lanes. The strength of the unit includes 2 fighter aviation regiments, 1 mixed aviation regiment and 1 *** regiment, and the main task is to protect the Arctic shipping lanes from any potential threat. Russian experts note that Russia needs to strengthen the protection of its northern borders due to disputes over the ownership of the Russian Arctic shipping lanes by some countries.
As the strategic position of the Arctic continues to rise, the competition between countries is also becoming more and more intense. In this situation, Russia takes a number of strong measures to ensure its interests and security in the Arctic region.