Admiralty Shipyard

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The Admiralty Shipyards is one of the oldest and largest shipyards in Russia, located in Saint Petersburg. The shipyard's building ways can accommodate ships up 70,000 deadweight tons, 250 meters in length and 35 meters in width. Military products include naval warships such as nuclear and diesel-powered submarines and large auxiliaries.

The shipyard was founded by Peter the Great during the Great Northern War in 1704. [1] It was administered by the Russian Admiralty, hence the name.

Military shipbuilding consists of orders from the Russian Ministry of Defense and export orders for foreign governments. The shipyard's military orders are primarily submarines, but also include non-military repair, modernization and building of other underwater technical innovations for oceanic development. Between 1973 and 1998 the shipyard has built 298 submarines, including 41 nuclear submarines, as well as 68 submersibles. The specialized submersibles produced include the civilian Sever-2 (1969), Tinro-2 (1972), Bentos (1975-1982), Tetis (1976), Osa, Argus, and Osmotr (1988) types, plus the naval Lima, Uniform, Xray, Beluga, and Paltus classes. The most recently built submarines include Kilo class submarines (2,325 tons D/W) and the smaller Lada class (1,600 tons D/W). In 1992 Iran purchased two Kilo class submarines for $600 million from the United Admiralty Sudomekh shipyard, with an option to buy a third. The shipyard's latest development is the Amur class submarine, which does not yet have a customer. The construction of underwater vessels constitutes 70% of the total production volume of the shipyard.

Admiralty Shipyards still keep the specialization in the area of submarine shipbuilding. A unique deep-sea research vehicle “Consul” is the first Russian deep-diving vehicle of the third generation, capable of diving as deep as 6000 meters and working for 10 hours using a manipulator as well as lifting to the surface a load of up to 200 kg.

In 1997 the shipyard started construction of tankers of ice class of 20 000 DWT, designed for simultaneous transportation of up to 4 different cargo grades. These tankers have been equipped with the latest automated ships systems of world class. The tanker has double hull and is able to run in solid-ice of 0.5 m thickness at a speed of 1,5 to 2 knots. During recent years the shipyard constructed for oil company Lukoil 5 ships of this project – Astrakhan, Magas, Kaliningrad, Saratov, Usinsk, which are working on the Northern Sea Route.

Currently approximate employment is 10,000 and the Admiralty Shipyards general director is Vladimir L. Aleksandrov.

See also: Baltic Shipyard