Russian Shipbuilding ‘Disrupted’ As Unique Sealift Ship Sinks

A singular and difficult-to-replace sealift ship operated by the Kremlin’s navy logistics firm sank within the Mediterranean Sea close to Spain on Christmas Eve. The lack of the 13,000-ton M/V Ursa Major is a serious blow to Oboronlogistika and the battered Russian shipbuilding trade.

The German-built Ursa Major was simply 15 years outdated, younger for an auxiliary vessel, when she suffered what the Russian Crisis Management Center described as a “blast” in her engine room. The ship was noticed itemizing to starboard earlier than finally sinking. Nearby ships rescued all however two of her 16 crew.

Ursa Major was a particular asset. She was Oboronlogistika’s largest ship, and in addition one of many few vessels on the corporate registry with roll-on/roll-off ramps for autos to drive instantly into and out of her maintain in addition to top-mounted cranes for vertical loading. “There merely isn’t a bigger common RO/RO-LO/LO-class cargo ship (able to horizontal and vertical loading),” one Russian blogger moaned in a missive translated by Estonian analyst WarTranslated.

Ursa Major as soon as supported Russia’s Syria garrison, which is now imperiled as a brand new regime takes over within the war-torn nation. But she reportedly was on different responsibility when she sank. The RO/RO ship sailed from Saint Petersburg in mid-December sure for Vladivostok on Russia’s Pacific coast. She handed by way of the English Channel on Dec. 16 alongside fellow Russian auxiliary Sparta and the Russian navy corvette RFS Soobrazitelnyy.

A Royal Navy Type 23 frigate shadowed the Russians on the passage. Later, a Portuguese air drive Lockheed Martin P-3 patrol aircraft checked in.

Visible on Ursa Major’s deck on the time: a pair of heavy cranes. The cranes and a pair of particular hatches for nuclear-powered icebreakers have been reportedly Ursa Major’s primary cargo as she sailed south by way of the Med towards the Suez Canal, following the southerly path to Vladivostok quite than the Northern Sea Route so as to keep away from winter ice. The unwieldy cranes might have made Ursa Major top-heavy, probably contributing to her loss.

“Along with the ship, the cranes destined for the Vladivostok terminal and luxurious hatches for icebreakers went to the underside,” the blogger complained. “Ursa Major’s process within the Far East was to satisfy state goals associated to ‘creating port infrastructure and the Northern Sea Route,’ which at the moment are, fairly evidently, disrupted.”