Admiral Chabanenko ASW ship
Since December 2013, Admiral Chabanenko has been docked at the 35th ship repair plant in Murmansk. Initially, Russian Navy planned to conduct interim overhaul, however, in August 2017 Kommersant reported that naval command had decided to retrofit the ship.
According to the newspaper, Severnoye Design Bureau will prepare the project docs for modernization of Admiral Chabanenko by December 2019. Thus, works on the engines will be completed half year prior to the ship’s retrofitting.
This is the second signed contract for repair of the ship’s DO90 booster turbines. The 35th ship repair plant tied the first contract with the Novik industrial group in 2014. The works cost 252 mln rubles then, i.e. 10 mln more.
The Novik group was selected a contractor to repair engines of that kind in the same 2014 jointly by United Shipbuilding Corporation and the Navy. Media reported the reason for such choice was the company’s 6-year long experience in troubleshooting and trial servicing of powerplants, and an in-house design bureau. Before that, the turbines were handled by Ukrainian Zorya-Mashproekt.
The company took part in repairs of similar engines for corvette Yaroslav Mudry as a contract holder, having outsourced the works performance to Metallist-Samara. Supposedly, repair of turbines for Admiral Chabanenko and for corvette Neustrashimy was to be held in the same sequence.
However, in April 2017 managers of Novik disappeared leaving the office and wage arrears, while in September 2016 ex-director Alexey Lyaschenko had obtained the MP seat.
Project 11551 ASW ship Admiral Chabanenko docked at 35th ship repair plant
According to Sergey Shuvalov, production director at Metallist-Samara, the company is about to complete all works within the set timelines. Design supervision will be provided by NPO Saturn.
"Well, perhaps it is prematurely to conclude that the company has obtained full expertise in turbines repair only having success with the Yaroslav Mudry’s engine. However, we aim to that and are ready to take such contracts in the future", added the expert.
For reference
Admiral Chabanenko is the Project 11551 large-size antisubmarine warfare (ASW) ship operated by Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet. The ship was laid down on February 28, 1989 at Yantar shipyard, launched on December 14, 1992 and commissioned on January 28, 1999.
The ship took part in numerous long-range missions. In 2008, Admiral Chabanenko became the first Russian naval ship entering the Panama Canal since the World War II end. In 2010, the ship was deployed on the anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden.
