November 26, 2018

Russia's Northern Fleet Floating Dock Sinks

Putin's Northern Fleet PD-50 floating dock some time BEFORE it sank. Could it be Peter the Great battlecruiser (?) inside it.
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It was early morning October 30, 2018 in Roslyakovo, within Russia's massive Northern Fleet complex a crane accident damaged Russia carrier Kuznetzov. At the same time Russia's largest, 80,000 tonne floating dock, known as PD-50,  sank.

It has been left to Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Denis Manturov (not the publicity averse Minister of Defense it seems!) to explain the floating dock will itself be refloated. But poor Denis doesn’t know when.


The floating dock is important because it helps maintain Russia’s nuclear propelled battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy (aka Peter the Great) currently involved in nuclear missile testing. The dock is also involved in the maintenance of all Russia’s Northern Fleet nuclear submaines. 

Might other large floating dock owners (maybe France, Greece, Germany, Britain or Putin's best friend Trump) loan Putin another one?!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_dock#Modern_era

Pete

7 comments:

  1. Anonymous11/26/2018 10:59 PM

    Hi Pete

    This is the second accident in the same floating dry dock, Gotaverken Arendal PD-50 [1, 2].

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PD-50
    PD-50 (Russian: ПД-50) is Russia's largest floating dry dock. It was imported from Sweden. PD-50 is 330 meters long and 79 meters tall. It is owned by Shipyard No. 82 of Roslyakovo, Murmansk.

    [2] ibid
    As of November 2018, the dock laid 50 m (160 ft) underwater, following an "out of design"dive.
    Nuclear Russian submarine Ekaterinburg (K-84), a Russian Delta-class submarine, caught fire in 2011 at PD-50 [1, 2]. The fire was extinguished by partially submerging PD-50 twice while K-84 was atop it.

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  2. Pete11/26/2018 11:07 PM

    Thanks Anonymous

    Those are very useful details.

    Russia has many submarine accidents compared to other navies.

    Regards

    Pete

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous11/27/2018 10:44 AM

    The Russian navy is in pitiful shape.

    Meanwhile, PLA navy is feeling some pains. Interesting that the source is a HK newspaper.
    https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2175102/trade-tensions-united-states-blow-hole-budget-chinas-newest-aircraft

    We can see that China is cutting back on BRI, walking away from dams in Nepal, no money for Duterte, partially because BRI debtors cannot pay, but also to conserve funds they will need to jump start their slowing 2019 economy.
    KQN

    ReplyDelete
  4. Pete11/27/2018 2:08 PM

    Thanks KQN

    https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2175102/trade-tensions-united-states-blow-hole-budget-chinas-newest-aircraft

    is very interesting.

    Showing China is having financial and technical problems building its:

    - Type 002 CATOBAR carrier

    - its high accident J-15 carrier jet, and

    - for the J-15 its WS-10 engine which has only 1/3 of the life of US Super Hornet jet engines

    If Trump's trade restrictions are arresting China's naval development and aid ability this is actually to Trump's credit.

    May Trump (against China) turn out like a Reagan (against Russia) ? Both presidents pursuing policies that ultimately hamstring defence developments of their main enemies?

    Regards

    Pete

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous11/28/2018 1:16 AM

    Hi Pete

    This dry dock is used to maintain ALL russian nuclear submarines in the area, not only
    SSBNs. It also includes those nuclear subs of the 29th Submarine Division.

    More details concerning the 29th see http://www.navyrecognition.com/index.php/news/defence-news/2018/april-2018-navy-naval-defense-news/6169-russian-northern-fleet-creates-submarine-division-for-deep-water-operations.html

    ReplyDelete
  6. Josh11/29/2018 2:12 AM

    @Pete:

    "- its high accident J-15 carrier jet, and

    - for the J-15 its WS-10 engine which has only 1/3 of the life of US Super Hornet jet engines"

    I hadn't heard either of these sentiments anywhere else, though the second one is hardly surprising. The Russians generally didn't/don't generally have the same engine life for their products as the equivalent western ones.

    Do you have sources for either of these items?

    Cheers,
    Josh

    ReplyDelete
  7. Pete11/29/2018 1:04 PM

    Yes Josh [at 29/11/18 2:12 AM]

    From Hong Kong's https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/2175102/trade-tensions-united-states-blow-hole-budget-chinas-newest-aircraft of November 27, 2018, Chinese territory:

    [THE CARRIER J-15 JET]

    "the J-15, which has had a series of mechanical failures and crashes. All of the J-15s were grounded for three months after a fatal crash in 2016. A military investigation revealed that some data relating to the flight control system had been doctored."

    [THE J-15s WS-10H ENGINES]

    "New turbine technology had extended the lifespan of the WS-10 engines from 800 flight hours to 1,500, but that was still just a fraction of the more than 4,000 flight hours that General Electric’s F414 engines – used on the US’ carrier-based F-18 Super Hornets – could put in."

    “The [J-15s] WS-10H is powerful and advanced, but its lifespan is much shorter than the American technology, meaning China needs more engines to support the operation of its J-15s. That’s costly because each WS-10 engine costs millions of yuan,” the insider said."

    Cheers

    Pete

    ReplyDelete

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