Lead icebreaker Arktika to enter service in June 2019

Lead icebreaker Arktika to enter service in June 2019

Russia's lead icebreaker, the Arktika, will be commission in June 2019, Deputy  Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said during Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's meeting with his deputies. Two other sister ships are to enter service in 2020 and 2021, respectively, TASS reports.

TASS quotes Rogozin as saying: "We are set to commission the lead icebreaker Arktika in June 2019, followed by the nuclear icebreaker Ural in November 2020 and the Sibir in November 2021."

Factory tests of the first turbine for the Arktika icebreaker are to begin on June 19, he noted; and each turbine will be tested for a month.

The vessel is being built at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg, with the Kirov Plant developing the turbines. Each icebreaker will have two turbines. The Baltic Shipyard is to receive the icebreaker's first turbine in July, followed by the second one in October, Rogozin said in conclusion.