MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. Designing and manufacturing of own universal amphibious assault helicopter carriers is part and parcel of a long-term program of naval shipbuilding through to 2050, a high-rank source in the Russian defense sector told TASS on Thursday.
“The Navy has put construction of Russia’s own amphibious assault ships on a long-term program of shipbuilding for up to 2050 and these plans have been endorsed by the Defense Ministry,” he said. “The document envisions (the emergence of) these ships, many such ships actually.”
The Russian Navy needs universal amphibious assault ships similar to the French Mistrals, or the ships that would be somewhat smaller in size and tonnage. Such ships will be able to solve many more combat tasks than the bid amphibious assault ships of the Ivan Gren type, under construction now.
When TASS asked the source where the Russian helicopter carriers would be designed, he mentioned the Nevsky and Northern Design Bureaus, “as both of them have done important enough exploratory works on universal amphibious ships.”
Russia and France signed an agreement in the summer of 2011 on construction of helicopter carriers of the Mistral family. The first ship, the Vladivostok, was to be handed to the Russian Navy this autumn but its delivery was put off indefinitely in the wake of events in Ukraine.