Wednesday, August 17, 2016

Klavesin-2R-PM to be Tested in Black Sea

Klavesin-2R-PM autonomous unmanned undersea vehicle
[courtesy: TASS]

Rubin Central Design Bureau of Marine Technology recently secured an insurance policy with SOGAZ (Gas Industry Insurance Company) to cover the loss of or damage to two Klavesin-2R-PM autonomous unmanned undersea vehicles, each worth RUB 300 million.

The first attempt to secure insurance began on February 10. Rubin announced it was accepting bids to insure the two vehicles during testing in St. Petersburg, in Crimea, and in the Black Sea, as well as for transportation between the locations. The insurance premiums (RUB 48 million) were unequally divided between the two vehicles: RUB 27 million for one (in 2016), RUB 21 million for the other (in 2017). Each vehicle being covered includes a load-bearing frame, propulsion system, containers with equipment and batteries, and other related components. The technical specifications provided for the Klavesin-2R-PM were:

  • length: approximately 6,500 mm
  • diameter: approximately 1,000 mm
  • weight: approximately 3,700 kg
  • maximum range: approximately 50 km
  • diving depth: approximately 2,000 m (due to the depth in the Black Sea test range, the diving depth will be 500 m)

Despite the fact that two companies bid on the contract (Ingosstrakh and SOGAZ), the competitive process was unexplainably stopped on March 4.

A second attempt began March 23. In the version of the documents published for this round, the vehicle's technical specifications were moved from the main contract document to an annex, which was not published. On April 6, the contract selection committee announced that the competitive process was nullified as only a single company (SOGAZ) had bid on the contract.

The third and final attempt began on April 6 with no changes made to the contract documentation. On April 21, after reviewing bids from two companies (MAKS and SOGAZ), the contract selection committee chose SOGAZ; the contract was signed on May 4. A few weeks later, SOGAZ released a statement on its website confirming that it had won the contract.