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Semi-submersible rocket-carrying icebreakers, landing ships, special vessels designed by the Institute of Physics and Technology and represented as models at an international military-technical forum, can provide year-round navigation along the Northern Sea Route.
Within the framework of the forum, the development of a semi-submersible rocket-carrying nuclear icebreaker was presented along with an icebreaker, amphibious ship, icebreaker tanker, and icebreaker capable of forming passages in ice more than 120 meters wide. The hulls of these ships equipped with ballast tanks are underwater in motion, above which only the superstructure, built in the stern on stealth technology, rises.
Expert opinion
Semi-submersible icebreaking missile carriers, landing ships, and special purpose vessels in the future can provide year-round navigation on the Northern Sea Route.
According to this, representatives of the Russian shipbuilding industry showed interest in developments at the exhibition.
“Experimental comparative studies on small-scale one-to-one models have shown a six-fold to sevenfold reduction in the efforts required to destroy ice as compared to the classical icebreaker scheme. The proposed scheme also has advantages in pure water: by reducing the total resistance, the water surface is crossed only by a thin narrow fin,” as the author of the idea and its developer explained.
He noted that this advantage is especially noticeable in the storm since the submersible submarine shell does not experience wave impacts, unlike surface ships and ships, which speed in stormy conditions loses up to 30%.
Principle of operation
The idea of a semi-submersible vessel is not new – the way of destruction of ice patented by the company in 2014 is unique. The vertical destructive force is created by the entire positive buoyancy of the ship and by the hydrodynamic lift of the hydrofoils. Previously, there was an idea to cut the ice with a milling cutter, which required a lot of energy.