Sevmash completes upgrades to build Russia’s next-gen nuclear subs

MOSCOW — Russia’s leading manufacturer of submarines said it completed the large-scale modernization of its electroplating workshop, charged with applying a particular coating to metallic products.

The effort, which concluded this month, is meant to increase the energy efficiency of production at Sevmash, which is expected to build a fifth-generation nuclear submarine for Russia.

The shipbuilder has now begun operating electroplating sites focused on ultrasonic cleaning, special chrome plating, solid and electrical insulating anodizing and chemical nickel plating, according to the company.

“By the turn of the 2010-2020s, Sevmash seems to have managed to achieve a more or less stable rate of submarine production. The construction and testing cycle now takes about seven years,” Pavel Luzin, a military expert at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C., told Defense news. “At the same time the plant is working on eight to 10 submarines at different stages of construction. By creating a new production facility, Sevmash strives to increase its commercial efficiency.”

Still, it’s unclear whether things will turn out as planned for the shipbuilder, Luzin added.

“Given the closure of access to Western technologies and equipment, when the entire chain of cooperation involved in the creation of submarines suffers from sanctions, it is difficult to predict how effective the modernization of Sevmash will be,” he said.

The last major modernization of Sevmash’s production facilities took place in the 1970s for the construction of third-generation nuclear submarines. Thanks to its participation in the government’s Federal Target Program, which aims to develop Russia’s military-industrial complex, Sevmash began reequipping and reconstruction in 2011.

Under the program, Sevmash was to receive 46.5 billion rubles (U.S. $507 million). Until 2017, the main expenses involved the purchase of automated technological equipment; multichannel measuring instruments; high-precision, computer-controlled machines; and highly efficient energy and mechanized equipment. The company sourced these from France, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Germany.

After 2022, Sevmash bought machines and instruments locally and from Belarus. For example, in February 2024, it purchased technological equipment for a deperming demagnetization station for 1.5 billion rubles from the Krylov State Research Center.

Sevmash will continue participating in the Federal Target Program until 2027, but must take this opportunity to modernize its production facilities for the construction of a fifth-generation nuclear submarine.

Luzin said this effort is already on the books, and that “Russia is in a hurry to create fifth-generation submarines, given that the Borei and Yasen subs will be under construction at least until the early 2030s.”

In 2020, the plant began to create a floating dock to replace its existing Sukhona dock built more than 40 years ago. Two years later, Sevmash completed the conversion of equipment from oil and coal to natural gas, which is more economical and energy-efficient. That same year, it completed reconstruction of its deep-water and shallow-water industrial embankments, traversing docks, and discharging berth.

Then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev delivers a speech in the northern Russian town of Severomorsk on June 15, 2010, at the Sevmash shipyard. (Vladimir Rodionov/AFP via Getty Images)

And in 2023, the company wrapped up modernization of its steel workshop, in which it acquired electric arc furnaces to produce steel, equipment for the secondary treatment of steel, gas treatment stations for furnace emissions and closed water circulation cooling systems. According to Sevmash, the goal here was to more effectively schedule work that involves the foundry as well as increase the cost-effectiveness of materials and resources.

The company is updating its crane equipment. It already replaced about 300 pieces, including elevators, manipulators and the cranes themselves. The plant is expected to complete this project by 2027, according to its parent company, United Shipbuilding Corp.

Sevmash’s forging and heating workshop, where parts for future nuclear submarines are heat-treated, is also receiving an upgrade, the plant has reported. Dozens of new electric furnaces and other equipment are undergoing installation there, it said. The replacement of the workshop’s equipment at this scale has not taken place in more than 60 years.

The shipbuilder is also updating its welding equipment. According to Russia’s official procurement website, Sevmash spent about 25 million rubles on welding equipment in 2022, despite a failed effort to buy spare parts for welding from the Swedish company ESAB that year.

Last year alone, 636 units of various equipment were put into operation, Sevmash reported. Among them was a new central digital automatic telephone exchange. And the plant has said it is purchasing transport vehicles.

Another important point in the technical re-equipment of the plant is the creation of the infrastructure necessary for the implementation of the block-modular method of nuclear submarine construction. That approach involves assembling submarines from large blocks filled with equipment. It would replace the current modular-aggregate method at Sevmash, introduced during the construction of third-generation nuclear submarines.

With the new method, most of the assembly work gets carried out in specialized workshops before the blocks are fed to the slipway for the final assembly of the entire submarine. According to Sevmash, this approach will improve the quality of work, reduce labor intensity and production costs, and shorten the construction time of a submarine by 18 months.

For block production to take place, the company would have to expand its assembly and welding workshops, build combined cleaning and painting chambers, and reequip itself for so-called buildingway-delivery production . This work is expected to conclude in 2031.

“The block construction method has been developed for submarines for more than one year, and requires greater accuracy of the entire technological process and a high-production culture at all stages. It is not yet very clear how successfully it can be implemented because it requires the approval of USC, Rosatom and other cooperation participants,” Luzin said.

“In addition, good engineers and workers are needed, but not many people want to move to Severodvinsk,” he added. “And even if the new method is introduced soon, it is not a fact that it will really reduce the time of construction and acceptance tests of the submarine by the expected 18 months.”

Maxim Starchak is a Russia correspondent for Defense News. He previously worked as an editor for the Russian Defence Ministry and as an expert for the NATO Information Office in Moscow. He has covered Russian nuclear and defense issues for the Atlantic Council, the Center for European Policy Analysis, the Royal United Services Institute and more.

莫斯科——俄罗斯领先的潜艇制造商表示，已完成其电镀车间的大规模现代化改造，该车间负责为金属产品施加特殊涂层。

这项于本月结束的工作旨在提高北德文斯克机械制造厂的生产能源效率，该厂预计将为俄罗斯建造第五代核潜艇。

据该公司称，该造船厂现已开始运营电镀厂，专注于超声波清洗、特殊镀铬、固体和电绝缘阳极氧化以及化学镀镍。

“到2010年代末2020年代末，北德文斯克造船厂似乎已经实现了潜艇生产速度的相对稳定。建造和测试周期现在大约需要七年，”华盛顿特区欧洲政策分析中心军事专家帕维尔·卢津告诉《防务新闻》。“与此同时，该厂同时在建造八到十艘处于不同建造阶段的潜艇。北德文斯克造船厂正努力通过新建生产设施来提高其商业效率。”

卢津补充说，不过，目前还不清楚造船厂的计划是否会按预期进行。

“鉴于西方技术和设备的获取渠道受阻，以及潜艇制造涉及的整个合作链都受到制裁，很难预测北德文斯克机械制造厂的现代化改造会有多大成效，”他说。

北德文斯克机械制造厂上一次大规模现代化改造是在20世纪70年代，目的是建造第三代核潜艇。由于参与了旨在发展俄罗斯军工综合体的政府联邦目标计划，北德文斯克机械制造厂于2011年开始进行设备更新和改造。

根据该计划，北德文机械制造厂（Sevmash）将获得465亿卢布（约合5.07亿美元）的资金。截至2017年，其主要支出用于购置自动化工艺设备、多通道测量仪器、高精度计算机控制机床以及高效节能机械设备。这些设备主要来自法国、瑞士、意大利、捷克、瑞典和德国。

2022年以后，北德文机械制造厂开始从本地和白俄罗斯采购机器和仪器。例如，2024年2月，该公司从克雷洛夫国家研究中心购买了一套价值15亿卢布的退磁站技术设备。

北德文机械制造厂将继续参与联邦目标计划直至 2027 年，但必须抓住这个机会对其生产设施进行现代化改造，以建造第五代核潜艇。

卢津表示，这项工作已经提上日程，“鉴于北风之神号和亚森号潜艇至少要到 2030 年代初才能完工，俄罗斯正在加快第五代潜艇的建造速度。”

2020年，该厂开始建造一座浮动船坞，以取代其40多年前建造的苏霍纳船坞。两年后，北德文斯克机械制造厂完成了设备从石油和煤炭燃料向天然气燃料的转换，天然气燃料更加经济高效。同年，该厂还完成了深水和浅水工业堤坝、横向船坞和卸货泊位的重建工程。

2010年6月15日，时任俄罗斯总统德米特里·梅德韦杰夫在俄罗斯北部城市北莫尔斯克的北马什造船厂发表讲话。（图片来源：Vladimir Rodionov/AFP via Getty Images）

2023年，该公司完成了钢铁车间的现代化改造，引进了用于炼钢的电弧炉、钢材二次处理设备、炉尾气体处理站以及闭式水循环冷却系统。据北德文斯克钢铁厂（Sevmash）称，此举旨在更有效地安排铸造车间的工作，并提高材料和资源的成本效益。

该公司正在对其起重机设备进行升级改造。据其母公司联合造船集团称，已更换了约300件设备，包括升降机、机械臂和起重机本身。该工厂预计将于2027年完成该项目。

据北德文斯克机械制造厂（Sevmash）消息，该厂的锻造和加热车间正在进行升级改造，该车间负责对未来核潜艇的零部件进行热处理。数十台新的电炉和其他设备正在该车间安装。该车间如此大规模的设备更换已有60多年的历史。

这家造船厂也在更新其焊接设备。据俄罗斯官方采购网站显示，尽管2022年从瑞典ESAB公司采购焊接备件的尝试失败，但北德文斯克造船厂（Sevmash）当年仍在焊接设备上花费了约2500万卢布。

据北德文斯克机械制造厂（Sevmash）报告，仅去年一年，该厂就有636台各类设备投入使用，其中包括一套新的中央数字自动电话交换机。该厂还表示正在采购运输车辆。

该厂技术改造的另一项重点是建立实施核潜艇模块化建造方法所需的基础设施。这种方法是将装满设备的大型模块组装成潜艇。它将取代目前北德文斯克造船厂在建造第三代核潜艇时采用的模块化总成建造方法。

采用这种新方法后，大部分装配工作将在专门的车间完成，之后将分段运至滑道进行整艘潜艇的最终组装。据北德文斯克机械制造厂（Sevmash）称，这种方法将提高工作质量，降低劳动强度和生产成本，并将潜艇建造周期缩短18个月。

为了开展砌块生产，该公司需要扩建其装配和焊接车间，建造集清洗和喷漆于一体的车间，并改造设备以适应所谓的“轨道式交付”生产模式。这项工作预计将于2031年完成。

卢津表示：“潜艇模块化建造方法已经研发了一年多，它要求整个工艺流程更加精准，并且各个阶段都需要高效率的生产模式。目前还不清楚这种方法能否成功实施，因为它需要得到苏联海军、俄罗斯国家原子能公司和其他合作方的批准。”

“此外，我们还需要优秀的工程师和工人，但愿意搬到北德文斯克的人并不多，”他补充道。“而且，即使新方法很快投入使用，也未必能像预期那样将潜艇的建造和验收测试时间缩短18个月。”

马克西姆·斯塔恰克是《防务新闻》的俄罗斯特派记者。他曾任俄罗斯国防部编辑，也曾担任北约驻莫斯科新闻办公室专家。他还曾为大西洋理事会、欧洲政策分析中心、皇家联合军种研究所等机构报道俄罗斯核问题和国防问题。