ST. PETERSBURG, January 29. /TASS/. The Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard in St. Petersburg in Russia’s northwest has floated out the Project 12700 fourth serial-produced minesweeper Yakov Balyayev, the Shipyard’s press office announced on Wednesday.

"We are already producing these ships in series. As you see, we are moving towards developing and assimilating new technologies and each new ship gets even better," Shipyard CEO Vladimir Seredokho said at the minesweeper’s launch ceremony.

Project 12700 Alexandrit-class coastal-type minesweepers are referred to the new generation of minesweeping forces and are designated to fight sea mines, including smart naval mines, which the new ships can encounter in the sea and on the seabed without entering the dangerous zone. The minesweepers can employ various sweeps, as well as remotely controlled and autonomous underwater drones. The minesweepers of this Project displace 890 tonnes, are 62 meters long and ten meters wide and have a crew of over 40 men.

The shipbuilders will build a series of several dozen mine countermeasures ships of this Project for the Russian Navy in the immediate future.

Project 12700 mine countermeasures vessels (minesweepers) have their hull made of glass-fiber reinforced plastic. As its advantage, this solution provides for the ship’s higher strength compared to the steel hull. The hull made of the monolith glass-fiber reinforced plastic has a longer service life (up to 30 years) than the hull made of low-magnetic steel while its weight is considerably smaller.

The Project 12700 lead ship Alexander Obukhov was delivered to the Navy in 2016. In late 2018, the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard transferred the Project’s second (first serial-produced) minesweeper Ivan Antonov to the Navy.