Project 21900 icebreaker

Sankt-Peterburg, the second Project 21900 icebreaker, underway in Kara Sea in 2015
Class overview
Builders
OperatorsRosmorport
Built
  • 2008–2009 (21900)
  • 2015–2016 (21900M)
  • 2023–present (21900M2)
Planned7
Building1
Completed5
Cancelled1
General characteristics (21900, 21900M)
TypeIcebreaker
Displacement14,300 t (14,100 long tons)
Length114–119.8 m (374–393 ft) (overall)
Beam27.5 m (90 ft)
Draft8.5 m (28 ft) (design)
Ice class
  • RS Icebreaker6 (Project 21900 and 21900M)
  • RS Icebreaker7 (Project 21900M2)
Installed powerFour diesel generating sets
PropulsionDiesel-electric; two azimuth thrusters (2 × 8.2–9 MW)
Speed
  • 16–17 knots (30–31 km/h; 18–20 mph)
  • 3–3.5 knots (5.6–6.5 km/h; 3.5–4.0 mph) in 1.0 m (3.3 ft) ice
Crew25
Aviation facilitiesHelideck for Ka-32/Ka-226 (21900) or Mi-8 (21900M and 21900M2)

Project 21900 icebreakers and their derivative designs are a series of Russian diesel-electric icebreakers built in the 2000s. They are also sometimes referred to using the type size series designation LK-16.

The two Project 21900 icebreakers built by Baltic Shipyard, Moskva and Sankt-Peterburg, were the first non-nuclear icebreakers built by a Russian shipyard in over three decades and the first new icebreakers ordered following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Few years later, three additional icebreakers of a slightly improved design referred to as Project 21900M were ordered from Vyborg Shipyard: two vessels (Vladivostok and Novorossiysk) were built in Russia and the third (Murmansk) was subcontracted to the Finnish shipbuilder Arctech Helsinki Shipyard. One icebreaker of a revised Project 21900M2 design was ordered from Pella Sietas in 2019 and another from Vyborg Shipyard in 2021; the latter (Vyborg) is under construction as of as of 2026.