Russia Arms Its Icebreakers With 76mm Guns & Artillery

by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

Russia will now be arming its icebreakers with guns and artillery as part of an ongoing effort to exert more influence, station more forces and potentially claim territory in the Arctic.

Russia already operates more icebreakers than any other country and of course travels along the Northern Sea Route border region ensuring unparalleled access to the Arctic. In recent years the Russian military has been moving more weapons, increasing patrols and even setting up bases in the region.

Russia’s state-backed TASS newspaper quotes the CEO of Krylov State Research Center saying the thickness of the ice will determine which kinds of weapons arm certain icebreakers.

“There will be ice-breakers and ice-breaking ships, in other words, ships capable of moving at a sufficient speed through ice floes of certain thickness. In fact, they will be armed icebreakers,” the CEO said, as quoted in TASS. “Where the ice is thin, there will be more weapons and the other way round.”

The TASS paper says the lead ship for the Arctic – an icebreaker of project 23550 The Ivan Papanin, began to be built at the Admiralty Shipyards on April 19, 2017 and launched on October 25, 2019.

“It will be armed with one 76 mm or 100 mm artillery piece,” the article states.

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