Russian shipbuilding companies will build three nuclear icebreakers of the new Lider class (Project 10510), Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said on Friday, adding that the issue of the project funding had been settled.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th September, 2018) Russian shipbuilding companies will build three nuclear icebreakers of the new Lider class (Project 10510), Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said on Friday, adding that the issue of the project funding had been settled.
"There will be three icebreakers of this kind ... The issue of funding [for building the icebreakers] has been resolved," Borisov told reporters before the beginning of the Russian-Indian intergovernmental commission session.
Borisov added that the new nuclear-powered icebreakers would be built by the shipbuilding complex Zvezda in cooperation with other Russian shipbuilders, including the Baltic Shipyard where three project 22220 icebreakers were being constructed.
In October 2017, Russia's state-run nuclear corporation Rosatom said it hoped to receive the government's decision on the construction of the Lider nuclear icebreaker in the near future. The company suggested that the building of the Lider icebreaker might be carried out under the ВОО (Build-Own-Operate) scheme in cooperation with major companies involved in the exploration of Arctic land deposits.
In December, then Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that the icebreaker might be built in 2023-2025.
Last week, Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said that building a series including three or four Lider vessels would be more cost-efficient than building just one icebreaker.
The Lider-class icebreakers (Project 10510) are expected to be equipped with an engine that produces 120 megawatts, making them the most powerful icebreakers in the world.
The Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers fleet currently includes five nuclear-powered icebreakers and technical maintenance vessels.
