New Russian Navy boat sinks at shipyard

On August 8, 2025, the Project 23470 tugboat Kapitan Ushakov began listing sharply to starboard while undergoing final outfitting near the pier of the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg.

Efforts by shipyard teams and emergency services to stabilise the vessel continued throughout the night but ultimately failed. By the morning of August 9, the tugboat had capsized and settled on the seabed adjacent to the pier.

Built according to the modern Project 23470 design, Kapitan Ushakov measured nearly 70 metres in length, 15 metres in beam, and displaced approximately 3,200 tons. It was launched in June 2022 at the Yaroslavl Shipbuilding Plant and transported to St. Petersburg for completion. The design goals for this class include towing vessels, offshore structures, ice navigation up to Arc4, firefighting, search-and-rescue missions, and even accommodating a helipad.

The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a pre-investigation under regulations governing construction safety violations. Early findings indicate flooding originated in the auxiliary machinery compartment, triggering the fatal list. The vessel was slated to join the Northern Fleet’s 566th support ship detachment in Murmansk and become operational by the end of 2024.

This incident raises questions about safety oversight during critical outfitting stages and could carry broader implications for Russia’s naval readiness. The loss of a nearly completed tug underscores the potential impact of procedural lapses, highlighting how construction-stage mishaps can remove valuable assets from service before they even enter the fleet.

A naval engineer at a major Scottish shipyard, who asked to remain anonymous, described the incident as a rare but telling failure in basic shipyard practice.

“A ship in this stage of construction is essentially in a controlled environment,” he said. “Systems are tested step-by-step, and the stability envelope is well understood. For a vessel of this size to flood and capsize alongside the pier, something went very wrong in either the way work was sequenced or the way safety margins were monitored.”

While acknowledging that accidents can happen in any yard, the engineer stressed that the circumstances here make the loss especially damaging. “When a vessel has already been launched and is in final fitting out, most of the high-risk structural work is over. Any flooding should be containable. That a 70-metre tug could not be stabilised overnight tells you that either watertight integrity wasn’t maintained or the crew on scene lacked the right equipment or training to counter the list quickly.”

He warned that the reputational fallout could linger long after the vessel is salvaged. “Navies rely on auxiliary vessels like tugs to keep operations running, and losing one before commissioning is a black eye for any fleet. It undermines confidence in shipyard processes and raises uncomfortable questions about quality control. Even if they refloat her, the fact she went down in port before ever joining the fleet will be remembered as a costly and avoidable failure.”