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New armament support ship to be built in Severodvinsk.

The Academician Kovalev armament support ship was designed by the Almaz design bureau in St. Petersburg

ARKHANGELSK, Northern Russia, December 20 (Itar-Tass) — A modern armament support ship will be laid down at the Zvyozdochka shipyard in Severodvisnk on Tuesday under a contract signed with the Russian Defense Ministry in September this year.

The Academician Kovalev is an ice class armament support ship. It is 112 meters long. Its water displacement is almost 6,000 tons.

The Academician Kovalev armament support ship was designed by the Almaz design bureau in St. Petersburg.

The vessel is named after academician Sergey Kovalev, an outstanding submarine designer, who headed the St. Petersburg-based Rubin central design bureau of marine equipment for more than 50 years.

A total of 92 Kovalev-designed submarines have been built in the former USSR and Russia.

The Academician Kovalev is a modified version of a rescue towing vessel that was built at the Zvyozdochka shipyard in Severodvinsk. Last year, the towing vessel came into service with the Russian Navy.

Zvyozdochka is the leading Russia shipyard that repairs and modernizes nuclear submarines. It also builds surface ships, including fishing trawlers. The shipyard caters for ships whose water displacement is less than 18,000 tons.

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