"During the first factory test run, the Ilya Muromets icebreaker underwent speed and maneuverability trials that tested all of its systems and equipment," the spokesman told reporters.
The ship’s future crew and a testing team also tried out five on-deck boats and 26-tonne cranes and ran a test to check the vessel’s tractive force, estimated at 97 tonnes, four tonnes above the required level.
The second stage of trials off Russia’s Baltic Sea coast is scheduled to last until September 10. The Ilya Muromets was launched in St. Petersburg in June 2016. The Defense Ministry has said it is the first icebreaker built for the Navy in 45 years.
The vessel is almost 278 feet long, 65 feet wide and displaces 6,000 tonnes. It has an operational range of 12,000 nautical miles and a two-month endurance. It is capable of navigating through ice up to 2.9 feet thick, carrying cargo in the hold and in containers on the upper deck, performing hydrographic studies and participating in rescue operations.
