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New dock needed to complete repair of aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, says minister

Trade Minister Denis Manturov pointed out that the incident with the floating dock won’t affect the time frame of the repair

MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. A new dock can be purchased to complete the repair of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, or already operating facilities will be used, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told reporters on the sidelines of the 2018 Anti-Counterfeiting forum.

"We currently have several options as how to solve the issue, namely either to construct a dry dock at the 10th [shipbuilding] plant, which is located just over the bay [in the Murmansk Region - TASS], or buy an already-built dock. We also have a fallback plan of using the dry dock at the Sevastopol plant," he added.

The minister pointed out that the incident with the floating dock won’t affect the time frame of the aircraft carrier’s repair.

"As for Admiral Kuznetsov’s maintenance, this problem will no impact its time framework, because under the contract docking is only scheduled for next summer, or spring of 2020," he recalled, pointing out that the place for completion of the carrier’s repair will be chosen over the remaining period of time.

The PD-50 floating dock sank overnight to October 30 in Murmansk during the planned exit of the heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser Admiral Kuznetsov, Russia’s only aircraft carrier, from it. According to preliminary information, the warship itself had its take-off deck damaged by a fallen crane and is now at the 35th Ship Repair Plant. One person was missing after the incident, and four others were injured, one of whom died later.

The PD-50 is one of the world’s largest floating docks and the biggest one in Russia. It was built in Sweden in 1980 on order from the Soviet Navy. It is 330 meters long and 67 meters wide and has a lifting capacity of 80,000 tonnes. The floating dock has an area of 22.1 sq. km, which is slightly less than Red Square in Moscow.