Russia Readies World's Largest Monolithic Fiberglass Ship

Russia will launch the Vladimir Yemelyanov on May 30 claiming the minesweeper to be the world's largest hull made of monolithic fiberglass.

She is being built at the Sredne-Nevsky shipyard in St. Petersburg and is anticipated to be delivered to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 2020.

Russia plans to build about 40 such vessels - the first, Alexander Obukhov, was delivered in 2016, and the second, Ivan Antonov, was delivered in 2018. Two more of the Alexandrit-class vessels are under construction at the yard.

The ship's monolithic fiberglass hull was formed by vacuum infusion and has a much lower mass than metal. This significantly increases its strength, says the Russian Navy. “Such a body is not afraid of corrosion, and the service life, subject to the norms of operation, is practically unlimited.” 

The ship has a displacement of 890 tons, length of 62 meters (203 feet), width of 10 meters (33 feet), full speed of 16 knots and a crew of 44. To combat mines, she is capable of deploying various types of trawls as well as remote-controlled and autonomous underwater vehicles.

Sredne-Nevsky Shipbuilding Plant JSC is the leader of composite shipbuilding in Russia and the only enterprise in the country that can build ships of four types of materials: composite materials, shipbuilding, low magnetic steel, aluminum-magnesium alloys.