Russian research vessel Yantar

Yantar (Янтарь) is a special purpose intelligence collection ship built for the Russian Navy.[2] The ship has been operated by the Russian Navy's Main Directorate of Underwater Research (GUGI) since 2015 and is reportedly a spy ship.[2][3] The vessel's home port is Severomorsk, where it is attached to the Northern Fleet.[4] It is the lead ship of its class, with two sister ships under construction.

History
Russia
NameYantar
BuilderYantar Shipyard
Yard number01602
Laid down8 July 2010
Launched5 December 2012
Commissioned23 May 2015
Identification
StatusIn service
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeProject 22010-class intelligence ship
Displacement5,736 tons (full load)
Length107.8 m (354 ft)
Beam17.2 m (56 ft)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Range8,000 nmi (15,000 km; 9,200 mi)
Endurance60 days
Boats & landing
craft carried
Complement60
Aviation facilitiesHelipad for 1 helicopter

Design and construction

Yantar was designed by the CMDB Almaz Design Bureau in St. Petersburg, and the hull was laid down on 8 July 2010.[5] It was launched in December 2012, and concluded its sea trials in May 2015. The ship has a length of 108 metres (354 ft) and a full displacement of 5,736 tons. It uses diesel-electric propulsion for a top speed of approximately 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). It officially has a complement of 60. The ship was built at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad.[5]

Roles

Yantar can act as a mothership to mini-subs. The United States Navy has stated that the submersibles are able to sever cables miles beneath the ocean's surface.[6][2] The submersibles are reportedly capable of operating at depths of up to 6,000 metres (20,000 ft). The submersibles are reportedly the project 16810 Rus-class submersible[5] and the project 16811 Konsul-class submersible.[3]

According to Alexei Burilichev, head of the Russian Defense Ministry's deepwater research department, Yantar is an oceanic research complex.[6]

Activities

Yantar has been reported in position near undersea telecommunications cables.[2][6][3][7]

In 2015, Yantar was spotted off the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.[2][6]

Summer 2016, Yantar was anchored outside Nuuk, Greenland.[8][9]

In 2017, Yantar was active in the eastern Mediterranean, near an undersea cable linking Israel to Cyprus.[2][3] It was also reportedly used to recover "secret equipment" from crashed Su-33 and MiG-29 aircraft.[3]

On 23 November 2017, upon an order of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Yantar and the specialists of the Russian Navy's 328th expedition search and rescue unit were sent to Argentina's coast to search for the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan that went missing on 15 November 2017.[10][3]

In Summer 2018, she was deployed to Mediterranean off the Syrian coast.

In November 2019, Yantar visited Trinidad and Tobago.[11]

In February 2020, Yantar was found near Rio de Janeiro submarine cables by Brazilian Navy. The crew evaded questions about their intents and turned off the ship identification systems.[12] In late March, Yantar was anchored off the Baie de la Seine, a few weeks before the Suffren first sea trial out of Cherbourg.[13]

In August 2021, Yantar was spotted off the coast of Ireland, running parallel to AEConnect-1 and the expected route of the Celtic Norse submarine communications cable.[14]

Sister ships

Almaz

A sister Project 22010-class ship Almaz is also under construction.[3]

Burilichev

On 5 February 2021, the third ship of the series was reportedly laid down in the Vyborg Shipyard under the name Vice-admiral Burilichev, to honor a former head of the GUGI, Alexey Vitalyevich Burilichev, who died in November 2020 due to coronavirus.[15][16]

References
  1. "Oceanographic research vessel Project 22010 Kruys". russianships.info. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  2. Mizokami, Kyle (September 19, 2017). "What Is a Russian Spy Ship Doing in the Eastern Mediterranean?". Popular Mechanics. Retrieved September 20, 2017.
  3. Peter, Laurence (3 January 2018). "What makes Russia's new spy ship Yantar special?". BBC News. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  4. Nilsen, Thomas (October 30, 2015). "Northern fleet gets unique vessel". The Barents Observer. Northern fleet Commandor Admiral Vladimir Korolev said in his speech while welcoming the vessel to Severomorsk that "Yantar" will help raise hydrographic and research activities in the Oceans to a new quality level.
  5. "Project 22010 Kruys / Yantar Oceanographic research vessel". GlobalSecurity.org. Archived from the original on June 13, 2016.
  6. Sanger, David E.; Schmitt, Eric (October 26, 2015). "Russian Ships Near Data Cables Are Too Close for U.S. Comfort". The New York Times.
  7. Trakimavicius, Lukas (10 February 2021). "The Hidden Threat To Baltic Undersea Power Cables". NATO ENSEC COE Energy Security blog. Retrieved 11 February 2021.
  8. Krog, Anders. "Russisk spionskib ud for Nuuk". Artisknyt.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 1 December 2017. I sommeren 2016 lå det russiske spionskib Yantar for anker få hundrede meter fra havnen i Grønlands hovedstad Nuuk.
  9. Gronholt-Pedersen, Jacob (October 21, 2020). Ledwith, Sara (ed.). "As the Arctic's attractions mount, Greenland is a security black hole". Reuters. In 2016, a Russian vessel, Yantar, which the U.S. Navy has alleged transports submersibles that can sever and tap into cables miles beneath the ocean's surface, anchored outside Nuuk, where a subsea communications cable lands that connects Iceland and America.
  10. "Russia sends Navy experts to search for missing Argentine submarine". TASS. 23 November 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  11. "Why is Russia's Spy Ship Near American Waters?". 14 November 2019.
  12. "Navio russo suspeito de espionagem coloca Marinha Brasileira em alerta - Época Negócios Brasil". Época Negócios (in Portuguese). Retrieved 21 February 2020.
  13. Guibert, Nathalie (8 May 2020). "La marine russe aux premières loges des essais du " Suffren "" [Russian navy have a front row seat for "Suffren" trials]. Le Monde (in French) (23429): 8. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  14. Sutton, H.I. (August 19, 2021). "Russian Spy Ship Yantar Loitering Near Trans-Atlantic Internet Cables". Naval News. In the hours before stopping, it had altered course to run parallel to the expected route of the Celtic Norse undersea cable. The other nearby cable is the AEConnect-1 which runs between Ireland and the United States.
  15. "Around World journal". 19 December 2019.
  16. "Буриличев Алексей Витальевич".
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