ST. PETERSBURG, December 12. /TASS/. A solemn ceremony was held at the Almaz Shipyard in St. Petersburg to lay down the Project 21180M icebreaker Yevpatiy Kolovrat for the Russian Navy, TASS reports from the scene.

"The vessel’s keel laying is the creation of new life … everything is in your hands and the way you do it before the birth will lay the groundwork for it to exist happily, for long and painlessly for the sake of the Defense Ministry," Head of the Support Fleet Service of the Defense Ministry’s Transport Provision Department Sergei Yepifanov said at the ceremony of laying down the icebreaker.

After the icebreaker is delivered to the Navy, it will operate in the Russian Far East, Yepifanov said. "Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky will be its home port."

Project 21180

Project 21180 vessels are Russian-made next-generation diesel-electric icebreakers of the support fleet. The Yevpatiy Kolovrat developed by the Nizhny Novgorod-based Vympel Design Bureau will be 82 meters long, 19 meters wide and will have a draft of 4.6 meters. The icebreaker will be able to develop a maximum speed of 14 knots and displace 4,080 tonnes of water. The vessel will have a crew of 28.

The icebreaker is designed to lead Russian naval ships and vessels, and also tow and deliver cargoes to remote bases, render assistance to ships in distress in ice conditions. It will be capable of breaking an ice field of 1 meter thick at a speed of two knots. The icebreaker will have an operating range of 7,600 miles.

The Yevpatiy Kolovrat is being built under the modernized ‘lightened’ Project 21180M. It is distinguished by the reduced size of the hull and the small draft. This series of icebreakers will get the most advanced Zaliv-LK-21180 automated control system.

In November 2017, a ceremony was held at the Admiralty Shipyard in St. Petersburg to transfer the Project 21180 lead icebreaker Ilya Muromets to the Russian Navy. The Ilya Muromets was the first icebreaker over the past 40 years built solely for the Russian Navy.