World Service Engineering Solutions (WSES) has completed its flagship shipbuilding project of 2025 — the development and implementation of the Calipso-Master universal azimuth thruster control system.
As part of the project, WSES specialists designed, manufactured, installed, integrated, tested, and successfully certified the azimuth thruster control system. The system will be operated on the MPSV06 multipurpose rescue vessel “Kerchenskiy Proliv”, currently under construction at Amur Shipbuilding Plant PJSC. The vessel is intended to ensure navigational safety and to carry out search and rescue operations along the Northern Sea Route.
A key challenge of the project was the ground-up development of a control system for Rolls-Royce Arc 0.5 azimuth thrusters. These are highly unique thrusters: only four such units exist worldwide, specifically designed for operation in harsh Arctic conditions. The need for development arose after the withdrawal of a Western vendor from the Russian shipbuilding market. The Customer required a rapid transition away from foreign dependency and the achievement of technological independence in the operation and maintenance of the control system.
Due to tight deadlines, the WSES team worked in parallel along two tracks: assembling the control cabinets while simultaneously developing the system software.
In accordance with the requirements of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RMRS), control systems of this responsibility level are subject to mandatory supervision and certification at the development stage, followed by rigorous testing to obtain a Type Approval Certificate. The control cabinets successfully passed all tests and were presented to specialists of the Baltic Branch of RMRS without remarks. As a result, WSES was issued a Type Approval Certificate for the product.
Following certification, the control cabinets were delivered to Dalzavod Shipyard in Vladivostok, where WSES engineers carried out system connection and integration into the vessel’s integrated control system.
On November 1, the vessel Kerchenskiy Proliv commenced sea trials. During the trials, the Calipso-Master azimuth thruster control system confirmed its fault tolerance and declared performance characteristics in the presence of specialists from the Far Eastern Branch of RMRS and representatives of the Customer.
This project marks a significant milestone in WSES’s development within the Russian shipbuilding market. WSES continues to expand its portfolio of universal technical control systems designed to meet complex and non-standard industry requirements.