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Black Sea Fleet’s new ships may be based in Crimea or Novorossiisk

A good port is being built in Novorossiisk, all facilities that existed in Crimea back in the Soviet era should be used, too, so as to avoid the costs of building new ones, Admiral Komoyedov says

SEVASTOPOL, April 15. /TASS/. Newly-built ships of the Black Sea Fleet may be based either in Crimea or Novorossiisk, the chairman of the State Duma’s defense committee, Vladimir Komoyedov, said on Wednesday.

"A good port is being built in Novorossiisk. All facilities that existed in Crimea back in the Soviet era should be used, too, so as to avoid the costs of building new ones," Admiral Komoyedov told the media in Sevastopol.

"What I have in mind is the research base in Feodosia, Sevastopol proper and the Crimean naval base. They are located well enough to disperse the fleet’s forces for the time being, and to bring them together into one force at a certain area again, if need be," Komoyedov said.

Six patrol ships of project 1135.6 will be built for the Black Sea Fleet. The Admiral Grigorovich and two more surface ships and two diesel-powered submarines of project 636.3 are expected to enter duty this year. Also, the Black Sea Fleet is to get two missile boats — The Zelyony Dol and The Serpukhov, about to be delivered by the Gorky Ship-building plant in Zelenodolsk, Tatarstan, in the middle reaches of the Volga. This year the Black Sea fleet will start using the salvage tug of project 22870 The Professor Nikolai Muru, which has passed government certification tests.

Under the rearmament program the Black Sea Fleet over the past 18 months has received a dozen boats and support ships, including anti-sabotage boats, high-speed patrol boats, diving boats and tug boats.