MOSCOW, March 31. /TASS/. The construction of the first pair of the upgraded Project 11711 large amphibious assault ships at the Yantar Shipyard on the Baltic coast is lagging behind the schedule, a source in the shipbuilding industry told TASS on Tuesday.

"The construction delay has resulted from the designer’s failure to timely provide the working design documentation," the source said.

At present, "the work on building the hulls" is underway on both ships, the source said, without specifying the delay time.

The Shipyard’s press office declined to comment on the source’s information.

The Yantar Shipyard (part of Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation) has initially built two Project 11711 warships: the Ivan Gren has already been delivered to the Russian Navy. The Pyotr Morgunov is the Project’s second ship. It is expected to be delivered to the Navy in late May.

On April 23, 2019, the Yantar Shipyard laid down two upgraded Project 11711 warships. Yantar officials and also Head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation Alexei Rakhmanov said earlier that the new warships would considerably differ from their Project 11711 predecessors by larger displacement. They will also have one superstructure instead of two and feature a possibility to carry combat helicopters, they said.

Yantar Shipyard CEO Eduard Yefimov said on March 24 that Russia’s Defense Ministry might order more upgraded Project 11711 large amphibious assault ships in addition to the two vessels already laid down.

The Project 11711 lead ship Ivan Gren built at the Yantar Shipyard was delivered to the Russian Navy in June 2018. The shipbuilders are preparing to deliver the second warship of this Project, the Pyotr Morgunov.

The Ivan Gren-class warships can carry 13 main battle tanks or 36 armored personnel carriers (infantry fighting vehicles) and up to 300 marines. The amphibious assault ship can also transport a reinforced marine infantry company with organic military hardware and land it with the use of pontoons.

The amphibious assault ship Ivan Gren is armed with 30mm six-barrel artillery systems and two Kamov Ka-29 transport/attack helicopters in its deck hangars.