Parting Shot: Papanin-class Arctic patrol ship Ivan Papanin

Papanin (Project 23550)-class patrol ship Ivan Papanin. (Janes/Michael Nitz )

On 25 March the Russian Navy's future Papanin (Project 23550)-class Arctic patrol ship Ivan Papanin (400) transited the Great Belt on its way out of the Baltic. Ivan Papanin was heading north and on 31 March arrived in the port of Severomorsk where it will continue its sea trials. This portion of its trials programme will almost certainly involve tests of its icebreaking capabilities and will likely also include test-firing of its weaponry.

Ivan Papanin is the first of two Project 23550 Arctic patrol ships being built for the Russian Navy. It was laid down in April 2017 at Admiralty Shipyards in St Petersburg and launched in October 2019.

The second unit, Nikolay Zubov, was laid down at the same yard in November 2019 and launched in December 2024. While the original plan called for both units to be delivered in the 2020–21 timeframe, in March 2018 this was officially pushed back to 2023–24. Additional delays have been encountered, and it is now likely that Ivan Papanin will be commissioned at some point during the second half of 2025 and Nikolay Zubov is highly unlikely to follow before early 2027.

With Russia increasingly focused on the Arctic and laying claim to large swathes of it, the Papanin class was designed to enable the Russian Navy to project power more widely in the region than would be possible with conventional, non-ice-strengthened warships.

As a result, these ships are armed icebreakers, mounting a 76 mm AK-176MA gun on the foredeck and capable of breaking through ice up to 1.5 m thick. They are also fitted with an MR-352 Pozitiv (Cross Dome) air and surface search radar, and from the pictures provided to Janes