Paul
Goble
Staunton, February 15 – Even before
its atomic power plant has been installed – that isn’t yet ready – one of the two
electric engines on Russia’s new and much ballyhooed icebreaker, the Arktika,
which is supposed to play a key role in opening the Northern Sea Route, failed
and may have to be replaced.
The Russian government has set up a
commission to try to establish what has gone wrong and what needs to be done,
but Moscow has not been able to hide this failure because the ship can’t go into
service as planned unless both engines and the nuclear power plant are working,
something that is not now the case (kommersant.ru/doc/4250248).
In many respects, this case is emblematic
of a fundamental problem with Russian construction projects in general and
military-industrial ones like this ship in particular: a rush to announce that
the project is completed well before it is in fact ready and then a scurrying
about to find someone or something to blame for any delay.
In this case, the ship was sent for
tests without the atomic power plant it is supposed to have and that will be
required if the Arktika is to perform as it is intended and the electric
motors that drive the ship’s propellers were not fully tested but installed anyway,
thus creating a public relations and practical disaster.
Moscow’s Kommersant reports
that those close to the project say that “in the best case scenario,” the ship
might be ready in the fall but not this spring as scheduled. That will force
Moscow to continue to use ships it had planned to retire and may even reduce
Russia’s ability to fully service the Northern Sea Route for the next several
years.
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