MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. The Severnoye Design Bureau is working on the project of a principally new amphibious assault ship for the Russian Navy, a source in the domestic defense industry told TASS on Monday.

"The Severnoye Design Bureau has been assigned the task of developing a new project of a large amphibious assault ship for the Navy. Work on the conceptual design is underway," the source said, without specifying the work’s timeframe.

The effort envisages starting work from scratch to create a large amphibious assault ship with a displacement of around 8,000 tonnes rather than developing some existing project. Other design bureaus are not involved in this work, the source stressed.

Russia’s United Ship-Building Corporation declined to comment on this information.

Design Bureaus for Marine Engineering

The Severnoye Design Bureau is one of the largest Russian design bureaus established in 1946. It develops surface ships of various classes, including Project 11356 guard ships, advanced Project 22350 frigates and Project 22160 modular-design patrol ships. The Severnoye Design Bureau is also working on the design of the future destroyer Lider.

Actually all the projects of amphibious assault ships were designed in the Soviet and post-Soviet periods by the Nevskoye Design Bureau - the sole design bureau in present-day Russia that specializes in aircraft carriers and amphibious assault vessels. The work on the first large amphibious assault ship Ivan Gren (Project 11711) in Russia’s modern history began in 1998 but dragged on over a lengthy period of time due to numerous changes in the technical assignment for the warship’s construction initiated by the Russian Navy.

The Ivan Gren displaces about 6,000 tonnes compared to the previous Project 1171 Tapir large amphibious assault ship’s displacement of 4,300 tonnes. The most numerous warships of this class in the Russian Navy (Project 775) displace 4,400 tonnes.