"Ivan Gren" - the Russian large amphibious ship Project 11711

The events of recent years have clearly shown that the state necessarily requires a powerful fleet that can perform various tasks. Unfortunately, the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent events seriously undermined the defense capability of the Russian Navy. However, recently the government has paid a lot of attention to this problem, new vessels are constantly being put into operation. To such is the "Ivan Gren", a large amphibious ship.

To date, well-known projects are the Zubr and Murena, which are still being built for foreign customers. Today, the domestic industry has a more ambitious task - to saturate its fleet with amphibious ships, which significantly exceed the size of the above-mentioned projects. However, the Navy had such. The task is to modernize them and bring them to the requirements of modern war at sea.

The situation

Today, the fleet includes vessels related to the projects 1171 and 775. They were designed to allow a possible transfer of up to one battalion of marines with heavy armored vehicles, artillery and other weapons. The first ships of this class were designed in Leningrad, the general designer was I. I. Kuzmin. Some of them were built at the Kaliningrad plant "Yantar", others - at the Polish shipyards. It happened in the period from 1974 to 1990. Subsequently, the leading CDBs for development were reassigned, but the ships themselves did not change from this.

General characteristics of projects

The ships of the project 1171 were characterized by a total displacement of 4,000 tons, with their help, an assault force of up to 313 men, fully armed, could be produced. It was assumed that ships can simultaneously carry up to seven medium or more than twenty light tanks. In 1966-1975, the Soviet Navy received 14 such vessels, with the Voronezh Komsomolets being the main one. During this time, the ships were modernized up to four times (during the construction and design). Project 775 assumed almost the same characteristics in terms of capacity and carrying capacity, but these ships were much better armed. In total, they were built 24 pieces.

To date, the Navy has left about 20 ships of projects 1171 and 775, the latter more. Fortunately, even with the collapse of the Union, the fleet was able to save almost all of them. Of course, they do not increase their youth, the resource is gradually expiring, and therefore the country needs to build new ships of this class. It is reported that it is "Ivan Gren" will gradually replace its predecessors.

The situation in NATO countries

It is important to note that the situation with landing craft is somewhat different in NATO. Both the United States and the EU countries strive to have as many of their fleets as possible multipurpose ships that can perform not only the tasks of landing forces and combat equipment. Despite the high cost of such projects, it is quite possible for them. Especially in this the Americans succeeded: even if we build the BDK at a rapid pace, then their level in the next two decades will not be achieved.

They have new military equipment going into the fleet with a stormy current. In principle, such a passion for landing craft is understandable, since the transfer of large quantities of manpower is much cheaper if carried out by the sea. Given the aggressiveness of American foreign policy, there could not be any other way.

The first domestic assault ship in the new century

The new ship, which should begin to restore the amphibious capabilities of the Russian fleet, was named "Ivan Gren". The name was chosen far not simply because the ship is named after a talented artilleryman and scientist. Until 1941, Gren led the Marine Research Institute. He began his service before the Revolution, in the Imperial Navy. He participated in tests and polygon studies of almost all systems that were developed at that time. Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, he began to direct the artillery of the entire Baltic Fleet. He showed himself as a great strategist and master of counterbattery shooting.

Information about the development of "Grenov"

The very first "Ivan Gren" is supposed to make the main ship of the whole project 11711. As for its development, it is held all the same in St. Petersburg. The general designer is A.Viglin, VN Suvorov was appointed chief designer of the vessels of this series.

Unlike previous ships of Project 1171, all requirements and real experience of all recent years were taken into account here. That is why the Ivan Gren BDK can equally well be used not only for the military, but also for peaceful operations. So, it is supposed that this class of vessels can be used to transport large volumes of cargo, including with a call to river fairways. The Ivan Gren BDK is capable of transporting all modern military equipment of the Russian Federation, since in its development and construction not only the requirements of the marines, but also the conventional land forces were taken into account.

Improvement of conditions for the life and work of the crew

Particular attention was paid to creating the most comfortable conditions for the life and work of the ship's crew. There is even a large training complex designed to keep sailors and officers in good physical shape. In addition, it is in the ships of this series will be provided for a special method of landing the landing. Recall that in the standard BDK production of the USSR provides a bow ramp, which allowed the "release" from the belly of the ship to three lightweight floating tanks simultaneously directly into the sea, provided the excitement is not more than three points.

For shore discharge, the same ramp was used. The slope of the coast is extremely high. When the terrain was disturbed, the old Navy ships could "land" the technique only by swimming. But this only applies to light, floating tanks. All the heavier machines remain on the ship. The non-contact method used in this case provides for the establishment of a light pontoon crossing: this technology has traditionally been used only by ground forces.

Several pontoons, which are put forward in place of the ramp, can quickly create a reliable bridge, along which even relatively heavy armored vehicles will pass. This method has long been used in foreign armies, as it allows to significantly expand the combat capabilities of landing ships.

Important changes and additions to the design

Another important innovation is the constructive possibility of transporting standard marine containers (up to 20 tons). What is even better, by virtue of its noncontact method of landing, the ship can deliver these goods even to a completely unsuitable coast for it. Ordinary transport ships such and not dreamed. The total weight of the cargo is up to 1500 tons. To simplify the loading / unloading procedure, a crane with a payload of up to 16 tons is installed on the ship.

Today they talk about the possibility of creating a "complete" amphibious boat, which will be stored in the internal hangar of the ships of the project 11711E. He can not only accompany the ship, but also carry out independent tasks. For sure, such an opportunity will especially attract rescuers, engineers, geologists.

Necessity for ships

How much will the project "Ivan Gren" be in demand? The need is already such that the manufacturer is loaded with orders for many years to come. When the first ship of the project was laid, almost all the top officials of the state attended the event, as well as the management of all those enterprises that would ensure production.

As the producers themselves say, the vessels of Project 11711 Ivan Gren, with the preservation of the current geopolitical situation, are extremely needed for the country. Since the order for the construction of ships was obtained by the famous enterprise "Yantar", one can not doubt the quality of the work.

Disappointing facts

All would be well, that's just the same thing the journalists wrote in ... 2004! Literally a few days ago, really fantastic news arrived: the landing ship of the project 11711 had finally started testing in the Baltic! It's been 11 years since the moment of laying before launching. I am glad that shipwrights promise to not delay the time so monstrously in the construction of the second copy (it is already in full swing). At the end of this year, the head ship promises to finally hand over the fleet.

The construction of the main ship was planned for four years, another ship is scheduled to be handed over to the fleet within two years. It is known that initially the fleet ordered five vessels of this series, but from three of them the sailors had already given up. However, after the history of the ill-fated "Mistrals" there is a hope that the number of these ships will still be increased, since they are extremely important for securing state interests far beyond the borders of the country. Finally, today we have received information that the military are still interested in building the entire series (up to seven ships), but the final decision will be taken only after passing all the tests by the flagship.

To be or not to be?

Finally, information slipped that next year it was decided to begin construction of larger amphibious assault ships, so that, perhaps, the fleet would be limited to only two vessels. In any case, there are already projects of large new-generation amphibious ships, so you can expect that this is not empty talk. In any case, "Gren" - the project is interesting, and the need for it is really very high.

Specialists of the decision of the military to reduce the "livestock" of these ships in general leads to a dead end: after all, they were calculated, including the possibility of transporting marines through internal rivers, which is an extremely important feature in conducting local operations. Two ships for this will be clearly small!

Because of what the terms were broken?

It is not necessary to blame everything for everything only "Amber". First, shipbuilders were hampered by a lack of funding. Secondly, for the first time the specification for the project was provided by the customer in 2003, but since that time the design and design of the ship have been constantly amended, which could not but affect the speed of work. So, in 2005, updated specifications were introduced, which assumed changes in almost all nodes. And this has happened more than once.

Import as a source of problems

The main problem of the whole project is a large number of imported components. In the light of recent events, they are urgently required to be abandoned and replaced by domestic ones. That's why the engineers continue to work on the long-suffering project. In principle, all the required components have already been delivered earlier, so that complexities are only expected with the second ship. But these difficulties are considerable.

The ship needs to replace a large number of imported components, which were originally stipulated by the specifications. So, already there were considerable difficulties with the choice of systems for cleaning and desalination of water. However, the producers say that domestic companies have experience in producing such components, so the question is again pushed into the budget. He adds hope that the second ship will already be built according to a proven scheme, and not from scratch. Several sections of the hull have already been laid.

In general, the "root of evil" of this project is that after the collapse of the Union, it suddenly turned out that almost all enterprises that manufactured components for shipbuilding were abroad. In particular, on the Ukrainian territory.

Main technical characteristics of the project

• The proposed displacement is up to five thousand tons.
• The length is 120 meters.
• The maximum width is 16.5 meters.
• The estimated draft is 3.6 m.
• The type of power plant is diesel.
• The maximum speed of the full stroke is 18 knots.
• The estimated number of crew is about one hundred people.

What kind of weapons can boast the amphibious ship "Ivan Gren"? Here is his prospective list (so far not all are known):

• Two installations A-215 Grad-M.
• Artillery. One 76 mm automatic installation AK-176M and two AK-630M (caliber 30 mm, automatic).
• One anti-submarine helicopter Ka-29 can be based on the ship.
• The capacity of landing compartments is up to 36 armored troop-carriers or 13 OBV (weight up to 60 tons). On board, up to 300 fully equipped and armed paratroopers can also be transported.

At the moment, the flagship is in full swing passes the final checks, being at the final stage of construction. Because of this, most of the weapons on its board have not yet been mounted, so it's too early to judge the final appearance of the ship and its weapons. We hope that by the end of this year we will still see "Grena" in full combat readiness.