The First Stays First

The main business line of the Almaz Bureau is design and modular upgrading of original high-speed ships and boats for the Russian Navy. However, after recent restructuring due to the merger with the Western Design Engineering Bureau the range of the offered ships has extended to include minesweepers, rescue vessels, and various docks. Some orders are also coming from abroad and by today there are already over 400 Almaz-designed ships operating in 26 countries. Original Zubr-type air cushion landing ships have been delivered to Greece, modernization programmes have been carried out on missile boats earlier supplied to India and Algiers.

The Mirage hovercraft has established a world speed record in her class. One should especially pay attention to SES ships, which are essentially air-cushion catamarans. These designs feature novel engineering solutions and propulsion plants.

Traditional advantages of designs offered by the Almaz Bureau are their world-best-quality weaponry and the tightness of weapon “packing” on the platform, as well as efficiency / price ratios.

Among the civilian products one could mention fast ferries, floating docks and commercial air cushion vehicles.

Today the Almaz Design Bureau is quite confident in its future: there are good opportunities for further development, and at the moment the company is installing a new advanced CAD / CAM system.