The modern Russian Navy is going through a period of modernization and re-equipment. The warships that were built during the existence of the Soviet Union replaced new modern warships. The emphasis is on strike ships and submarines, which form the basis of any modern fleet. However, in the arms race one should not discount technical support ships, without which the fleet loses its combat effectiveness and efficiency.
Mine protection ships continue to be one of the main elements of any fleet, and Russia today is making desperate attempts to join the ranks of its fleet of this class. The main combat unit in the structure of the mine protection compound should be the Project 12700 ship.
What is the newest nav 12700 for the Russian fleet
Mine defense ships, which are part of the current Russian Navy, are for the most part ships of the old Soviet construction. The current requirements for mine warfare at sea have indicated the need for a completely different type of combat ship. A new minesweeper must be completely invulnerable to mines and be able to effectively deal with the threat of mines in the coastal marine zone.
The novelty was to use constructive materials completely new for warships to build a ship. The new base minesweeper, which received the code Alexandrite, was designed by the Central Design Bureau Almaz. The idea to create a mine ship has long been in the circles of the country's top naval leadership. Only in the zero years of the technical task began to emerge in a real project, which received an index of 12700.
The new base minesweeper type "George Kurbatov" should be the main combat unit for the search, detection and destruction of mines of all classes and types in the basing places of the fleet. The construction site of the new ship was the Middle Nevsky Shipyard. The series received the production cipher BT-730. The lead ship of the series, the minesweeper "Alexander Obukhov" of the project 12700 was laid in 2011. Almost three years later, the newest base minesweeper was launched. The result of the work of St. Petersburg shipbuilders inspired the naval command, so it was urgently decided to continue the series. The following year, in April 2018, a second ship was laid, called the “George Kurbatov”, corresponding to the name of the type of ships for this project.
The base minesweeper type "George Kurbatov" project 12700 has a composite hull made of fiberglass by vacuum diffusion. The length of the vessel is 62 meters. Impressive and displacement minesweeper. Up to this point, all vessels from composite materials had a displacement of not more than 450 tons. The Russian base minesweeper of the project 12700 has a displacement twice as large - 800 tons. To date, this is the only combat ship in the world of this size, which has a non-metallic hull.
As conceived by the creators of the new base minesweeper should be the anti-mine ship of the new generation. The basis of the construction of the ships of the mine-sweeping group was the concept of "mine hunting". The appearance in service of fleets of new types of mines equipped with multi-channel fuses of the combined type carried a threat to a warship of any class. The new mines were insensitive to existing types of waste equipment, so it was decided to move from massive trawling to the blind directly to mine search and destruction.
The main design features of the minesweeper project 12700
Thanks to the fiberglass hull, the ship has a reduced background of physical and electric fields, reducing the likelihood of non-contact mines to operate. Unlike steel hulls of ships, the construction of fiberglass can serve for 30-40 years without loss of basic physical and chemical properties. Project 12700 is considered the most successful development of Russian designers in the last decade. The practical experience gained in using composite materials for the construction of warships may give rise to the construction of warships of other classes designed to operate in the coastal maritime zone.
To create a composite hull for the first time at the shipyard the latest equipment was used, which is a pilot production. The production complex created from scratch is unique in its kind and has no analogues in Russia. The technological capabilities of the complex equipment provide the ability to create monolithic fiberglass hulls up to 80 meters. This package has a number of obvious advantages:
- strength comparable with steel structures;
- long service life;
- minimal technological service;
- small weight in comparison with steel structures of similar size.
The composite hull is ideal for installing a new anti-mine circuit on it, which, together with the latest sonar stations, significantly increases the survivability and combat capability of the ship. A new mine control circuit is installed on the ship’s hull and on remote submersibles towed by the vessel. In addition to new developments in the field of mine detection, the new minesweeper is equipped with traditional trawling equipment, contact and non-contact trawls. A set of anti-mine equipment and weapons is part of a unified management system, which received the short name ACS PMD. The mine action system is controlled from the ship’s command center.
A novelty in anti-mine equipment are robots that operate autonomously or with the help of television equipment. The minesweeper is equipped with the latest positioning system and can search for mines even with agitations of up to 5 points.
In the process of creating the ship, the features of the high buoyancy of the fiberglass hull were taken into account. On a new vessel, the buoyancy reserve is 70%, in contrast to the traditional for most military vessels, a buoyancy reserve of 50-60%. It was possible not only to create a seaworthy durable and stable vessel, but also a maneuverable warship.
The warship BT type "George Kurbatov" was equipped with a powerful power plant. The 2500 hp diesel engine should provide the ship with a maximum speed of 15 knots. The sailing range with an economical course is 1500 km, which is quite enough for long-term combat work in a fairly extensive water area. The autonomy of the voyage for a new ship is set at 10 days, which is quite enough for a crew of 41 people.
The mine armor of the newest minesweeper was supplemented with a 30mm AK-306 artillery mount, portable Igla SAM and two large-caliber 14.5mm machine guns on the turrets.
The future of the new minesweeper project 12700
Following the second ship of the BT series “George Kurbatov” in 2018, with a difference of three months, two more vessels were laid on the stocks of the Middle Nevsky GCC, which are currently at different stages of construction. The ship "George Kurbatov" has not yet been commissioned. The reason for delaying the delivery of the combat ship is a fire on the ship, which has damaged the internal parts of the main building. Today, restoration work on the ship is underway. There are prerequisites to use the main components and assemblies of a damaged ship to speed up the construction of two other ships of the series.
The first-born of the series, the base minesweeper of the project 12700 is in combat service as part of the Baltic Fleet. Tactical and technical characteristics, which demonstrates the new ship, they say about the correctness of the technical solution and the course of design ideas. Combat vessels made of composite materials can serve as the basis for the creation of a mosquito fleet armed with rocket weapons.
