Russian propaganda sources claim that for the Main Naval Parade on Navy Day in St. Petersburg on July 28, three surface ships and three submarines from the Northern Fleet will be involved.
These vessels include the K-561 Kazan nuclear multipurpose submarine, the B-448 Tambov torpedo nuclear submarine, the B-586 Kronstadt diesel-electric submarine, the Project 11711 Ivan Gren large landing ship, the Admiral Levchenko large anti-submarine ship, and notably, the Project 23550 Ivan Papanin patrol icebreaker.
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The Ivan Papanin ship is expected to draw the attention of Western analysts monitoring the parade, marking its first presentation with unique characteristics that have been heavily promoted by russian media.
Current plans indicate that russia aims to build four Project 23550 patrol icebreakers: two for the russian Navy and two for the FSB Coast Guard. The Ivan Papanin ship is the first of the two intended for the russian Navy and is set to be officially accepted into service only at the end of 2024, meaning the ship at the parade will essentially be in a preliminary state.
Designed for Arctic operations, these icebreakers have significant dimensions: a full displacement of 8,500 tons, a hull length of 114 meters, a hull width of 19.5 meters, and a crew of 60, expandable by another 50 if needed.
The armament for the patrol icebreakers of the project 23550 differs between the variants for the FSB Coast Guard and the russian Navy. The FSB version includes a 76 mm AK-176MA gun mount, two 30 mm AK-630 gun mounts, four turrets for the Kord machine guns, and eight Igla and/or Verba MANPADS.
In contrast, the Navy version potentially includes these elements plus the Club-K container launch system, with four launch guides for the Kh-35 anti-ship missiles or Kalibr cruise missiles for striking ground targets or in an anti-ship configuration.
The current status of the Club-K system is unclear, and there is no public evidence that russia has commenced serial production of this system. Nevertheless, the mere existence of Club-K often leads to misattributions, such as the status of the Kalibr missiles carrier being erroneously given to patrol ships of the Project 22160 from the Black Sea Fleet due to repeated claims by russian propagandists that the Club-K system could be installed on such vessels.
These factors make the potential appearance of the Ivan Papanin combat icebreaker a noteworthy event likely to attract significant attention from Western analysts.
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