Ilya Muromets

Ilya Muromets was a Soviet Navy icebreaker in service from 1965 until 1993. It had a 1966-built sister ship Buran. Description In the mid-1950s, the Soviet Union began developing a new diesel-electric icebreaker design based on the 1942-built steam-powered icebreaker Eisbär to meet the needs of both civilian and naval operators. Built in various configurations until the early 1980s, the Project 97 icebreakers and their derivatives became the largest and longest-running class of icebreakers and icebreaking vessels built in the world. Two unarmed Project 97A icebreakers built for the Soviet Navy are sometimes considered as a separate subclass, Project 97K. Project 97K icebreakers were long overall and had a beam of . Fully laden, the vessels drew of water and had a displacement of . Their three 10-cylinder 13D100 two-stroke opposed-piston diesel engines were coupled to generators that powered electric propulsion motors driving two propellers in the stern and a third one in the bow. Project 97K icebreakers were capable of breaking thick snow-covered ice at very slow but continuous speed.