A new 114-meter border patrol ship of the first rank ice class under the code "Ermak" was officially laid down at the Vyborg Shipyard for the Coast Guard of the Border Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation. The new icebreaker "Dzerzhinsky" will be the fourth in Project 23550, whose ships are designed to operate in the Russian Arctic zone.
According to data from open sources, all icebreakers of Project 23550, both with the code "Arktika" and with the code "Ermak", have ice class Arc7*. This means that they can independently navigate in consolidated Arctic first-year ice up to 1.4 m thick in the winter-spring navigation and up to 1.7 m in the summer-autumn navigation. If such vessels are in a channel behind an icebreaker, they can overcome first-year Arctic ice up to 2 meters thick in the winter-spring navigation and up to 3.2 m in the summer-autumn navigation. This is aided by Russian-made diesel engines.
The standard icebreaker of Project 23550 from CMDB "Almaz" is designed for a crew of 60 people and an additional crew of 50 people. It has a separate hangar for helicopters and UAVs, and can accommodate large helicopters of the Mi-8 type. The armed icebreaker is also equipped with a towing winch with a тягой of 80 tons and two cranes with a lifting capacity of 28 tons each.
The icebreakers of Project 23550 are armed with 76-mm and 30-mm automatic artillery installations, 12.7-mm machine guns and MANPADS. It is noted that the military version may carry containers with cruise missiles of various types on board.
However, new vessels of other classes are also gradually being added to the Coast Guard of the Border Service of the FSB of Russia. The patrol ship "Podolsk" recently joined it. It can autonomously stay in ice for up to twenty days with 25-30 military personnel on board. If necessary, the crew will repel border violators with a 30-mm six-barreled artillery installation AK-630 and other weapons.
