Russia Launches First Super Icebreaker with No Foreign Components

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 11 – Russia has launched the Yakutiya, the fourth super icebreaker in its new class of such ships – the Artika, Ural and Sibir are already underway, the Chukotka and Leningrad are under construction, and the keel of the Stalingrad is to be laid later this year – but the first to be assembled without any foreign-produced components.

    That fact may be of particular importance to Vladimir Putin who has declared that the Northern Sea Route, which requires icebreakers to operate, is equivalent to the Trans-Siberian Railway as far as Russia’s economic and geopolitical future are concerned (thebarentsobserver.com/news/latest-nuclearpowered-icebreaker-steams-north/428022).

    What if any constraints the lack of foreign components will place on the new ship is as yet unknown, despite Russian suggestions that Moscow can do without such systems; but the electronics on a ship like the avionics on an airplane are seldom visible at first but may become the most important in operations.

    But it seems clear that these limitations may be important after all, given Russia’s troubled history of building ships and Putin’s own call this week for opening Arctic shipping to international cooperation (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/07/moscow-facing-growing-problems-with-itshtml and thebarentsobserver.com/news/belligerent-putin-raises-his-bets-in-the-arctic/427497).