[3] After completing sea trials, the vessel was officially delivered to the Russian Navy in a flag-raising ceremony on 30 November 2017.

[8] While initially the 6,000-ton Ilya Muromets was intended to be the lead ship of a series of four icebreakers,[11] the Ministry of Defence decided not to begin the serial production of the Project 21180 due to high cost of the vessels.

Instead, it will focus on building smaller Project 21180M icebreakers with about two thirds of the displacement and more limited functionality compared to the bigger vessel.

Like her civilian counterparts, Ilya Muromets is also equipped with a towing winch and stern notch for escorting other ships in ice conditions.

The vessel's power plant consists of four 3,000-kilowatt (4,000 hp) 6-cylinder Wärtsilä 6L32[1] medium-speed diesel generating sets.