MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. Russia’s Pacific Fleet will soon get six diesel-electric submarines, eight corvettes and also a destroyer, nuclear-powered subs and small missile ships armed with cruise missiles, Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Sergei Avakyants said in an interview with the Defense Ministry’s newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda on Wednesday.
"Until the end of 2018, we are planning to accept the Project 20380 corvette Gromky for service. This is the second corvette of this Project specially built for the Pacific Fleet under the rearmament program," the admiral said.
The warship is currently at the final stage of shipbuilders’ sea and state trials. The naval flag will be hoisted aboard the corvette in late December, the Pacific Fleet commander said.
Next year, the Pacific Fleet will be reinforced with the Project 20385 corvette Gremyashchiy. The crew has already taken its place on the warship whose construction is nearing completion in a planned manner, he noted.
"This ship is the first carrier of Kalibr cruise missiles for the Pacific Fleet and the personnel were trained taking into account this factor. Overall, let me repeat, we expect to get 8 such corvettes from the industry," the admiral said.
The Shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur in the Russian Far East will build four Project 22800 small missile ships armed with Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles for the Pacific Fleet. The large anti-submarine warfare ship Marshall Shaposhnikov will also get the strike missile complex during its modernization.
The Pacific Fleet is also reinforcing its submarine component. Thus, the Fleet will get six newest Project 636.3 diesel-electric submarines, the first of which is due to join the Fleet already in 2019. Also, modernization continues to arm Project 949A nuclear-powered underwater missile cruisers with Kalibr cruise missiles, the commander said.