Собственно, уважаемый Александр Стукалин, в этом сообщении нет ничего принципиально нового - русские ПЛ проталкивают венесуэльцам уже два года. Просто сейчас в связи с американским эмбарго русские шансы возросли. О чем, собственно, и заметка. Венесуэльцам показали "Санкт-Петербург", он им понравился, но вместо "Амура-1650" их больше интересует меньший вариант "Амур-950".
JANE'S DEFENCE WEEKLY - JUNE 14, 2006
Russia poised to win Venezuelan contract
JOSÉ HIGUERA JDW Correspondent
Santiago
Russia's Admiralteyskiye Verfi (Admiralty Shipyard) has taken the lead in the competition to build three diesel-electric submarines for the Venezuelan Navy, according to sources in Venezuela.
Russian military sales agency Rosoboronexport and Admiralty Shipyard are offering the Amur 1650 and Amur 950: the export derivatives of the new Project 677 or Lada-class diesel-electric submarine designed by the Rubin Marine Design Bureau in St Petersburg. The design is competing against a variant of the Type 209 from Germany's HDW and the Scorpene from France's Armaris and Spain's Navantia.
With the relations between the US government and the Venezuelan authorities worsening, Washington has stepped up its efforts to block the transfer of any military equipment or parts, either made in or licensed by the US, to Caracas. This situation raises complications for the European manufacturers, but with the absence of any US equipment in the Amur designs, Admiralteyskiye Verfi has a clear path.
Sources in Caracas told Jane's that the US ban is not the only factor favouring the Russian offer, however. They report that Venezuelan Navy's technical delegations have inspected the Russian Federation Navy's first Lada-class boat in service, Sankt Petersburg, and have been greatly impressed by the performance and capabilities of the 67 m-long, 2,000 ton boat, on which the Amur 1650 is based. The sources added that Venezuela is more interested in the smaller Amur-950 design, however, as it is tailored for coastal operations. The Amur 950 design is 60 m long, displaces 1,100 tons and can reach a maximum submerged speed of 21 kt. Crewed by 20 sailors, it has an endurance of 30 days.
Venezuela operates two German-built Sabalo-class (Type 209/1300) submarines, Sabalo and Caribe, both of which are undergoing refit and upgrade programmes.
They should return to service by the end of 2006 and 2007 respectively. With a slightly longer endurance - 50 days - these boats would continue their roving patrol duties alongside the new coastal submarines in the short term, before the new submarines take over and the Sabalos are retired.
The navy intends to use the new submarines to cover a range of potential missions including patrolling and blocking sea lanes, actions against surface and submarine forces, attacks against land targets and insertion of special forces.
The Amur 950 design offers four torpedo tubes capable of launching a wide range of weapons, including anti-shipping and land attack missiles, torpedoes, mines and sonar decoys.
No selection date has been set.
Options include a Kristall-27E fuel-cell air-independent propulsion system plug and a fitting of a hull plug containing 10 missile silos, allowing for the launch of missile salvoes as the submarine is submerged.
