MOSCOW, April 30. /TASS/. The Russian Navy plans to operate about 40 Project 12700 mine countermeasures vessels by 2030, Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Vladimir Korolyov said at a meeting on surface shipbuilding on Tuesday.

"Anti-mine defense ships are being serially built as part of the efforts to develop and rearm the Navy’s minesweeping forces. Before 2030, the Russian Navy plans to operate about 40 Project 12700 mine countermeasures ships," the Navy chief said.

The third newest ship of this series, the Vladimir Yemelyanov, will be floated out until the end of the second quarter of 2019.

The minesweeper is under construction at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard in St. Petersburg in northwest Russia. Two more warships of this Project, the Georgiy Kurbatov and the Yakov Balyayev, are at the Shipyard’s slipways featuring a different extent of their readiness.

Russian Navy Shipbuilding Chief Vladimir Tryapichnikov earlier said that the Fleet expected to get 40 Project 12700 fiberglass minesweepers by 2030-2050. The capacities of the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard allow it to build two minesweepers a year and subsequently three mine countermeasures vessels annually for the Navy.

Project 12700 minesweepers

The Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard is using the most advanced Russian technologies unrivaled in world shipbuilding to construct these minesweepers. The ships of this Project have a unique and the world’s largest hull made of monolith glass-fiber reinforced plastic. The hull weighs considerably less compared to its metal version while its strength increases significantly. This hull is completely unsusceptible to corrosion while its service life is practically unlimited, given compliance with the standards of its operation.

Project 12700 has been developed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau for the Russian Navy. The warships of this type are referred to the new generation of minesweeping forces and are designed to fight sea mines, which the new ships can encounter in the sea and at the seabed without entering the dangerous zone. The minesweepers can employ various sweeps, as well as remotely controlled and autonomous underwater drones to fight mines. The minesweepers of this Project displace 890 tonnes, are 62 meters long and ten meters wide and have a crew of 44 men.