MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. The Russian Navy will receive five more Project 23130 logistic support tankers similar to the vessel Academician Pashin that entered service with Russia’s Northern Fleet on January 21, Chief of the Auxiliary Fleet Service in the Defense Ministry’s Transport Support Department Sergei Yepifanov said on Tuesday.

"As for the prospects of these vessels, the Russian defense minister made a decision in 2019 on building five more tankers of this Project," he said at the ceremony of hoisting the flag aboard the tanker Academician Pashin in the northwestern Murmansk Region.

The same-type tanker will join the Northern Fleet in 2024, he said, without specifying where the other four tankers of this Project would be delivered after they were built.

"This tanker is meant not specially for the Northern Fleet but for the entire Navy. All the tankers are universal and multi-functional and are intended for all the fleets. They have an unlimited range of their operation and feature an ice-class hull," he added.

The new sea tanker Academician Pashin with improved technical characteristics entered service with the Northern Fleet’s logistics and rear support forces on Tuesday.

The solemn ceremony of hoisting the flag of the Russian Navy’s auxiliary fleet took place aboard the tanker at the Northern Fleet’s main naval base of Severomorsk with the participation of Fleet Commander Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseyev.

The new logistics support vessel underwent trials in the Barents Sea where such combat ships as the heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Veliki and the frigate Admiral Gorshkov provided assistance for the tanker’s trials at various stages. During one of the tests, the new tanker refueled three combat ships at a time.

The Project 23130 medium-sized sea-going supply tanker Academician Pashin has been built at the Nevsky Shipyard on order from Russia’s Defense Ministry. The tanker is equipped with a diesel single-shaft propulsion unit and a bow thruster and is an Arc4 ice-class vessel. The crew and passenger rooms and the service premises are located in the aft-end living superstructure.

The vessel is equipped with mechanisms for the transfer of liquid and dry cargoes while on the move at sea. The vessel’s cargo system can simultaneously transport eight types of cargoes. The tanker is 130 meters long and 21 meters wide, develops a maximum speed of 16 knots and has an endurance of 60 days. It displaces 9,000 tonnes and has a crew of 24.