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Latest amphibious assault ship accepted for service in Russian Navy

The Pyotr Morgunov is the first serial-produced Project 11711 warship designed by the Nevskoye Design Bureau

KALININGRAD, December 23. /TASS/. The Project 11711 large amphibious assault ship Pyotr Morgunov built at the Yantar Shipyard (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) has been accepted for service in the Russian Navy, a TASS correspondent reports from the scene.

The Russian Navy’s St. Andrew’s flag was officially raised aboard the warship.

"I express the confidence that the crew … will worthily represent the Russian Navy in the World Ocean," Navy Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Yevmenov said at the official ceremony.

The Pyotr Morgunov is the first serial-produced Project 11711 warship designed by the Nevskoye Design Bureau. The contract on the warship’s construction was concluded with Russia’s Defense Ministry in September 2014. The warship was laid down in June 2015 and put afloat in May 2018. The shipbuilders’ sea trials began in December 2019 and were completed in September this year.

In November, the latest warship wrapped up the program of state trials in the Baltic Sea. The large amphibious assault ship Pyotr Morgunov will operate in Russia’s Northern Fleet and the crew of the Fleet’s sailors is already staying on its board.

The warship has been named after the first holder of the 1st Class Nakhimov Order, chief of the Black Sea Fleet’s coastal defense during the Soviet Union’s 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War against Nazi Germany Lieutenant-General Pyotr Morgunov.

The Pyotr Morgunov is the Project 11711 second warship. The Project’s lead ship Ivan Gren was floated out in Kaliningrad in May 2012. It was accepted for service in the Russian Navy on June 20, 2018.

The Pyotr Morgunov is the largest in its class and displaces 5,000 tonnes. It will be able to take on its board 13 main battle tanks, or 36 armored personnel carriers or infantry fighting vehicles. An option is envisaged for taking a marine infantry battalion on its board.

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 is armed with two 30mm AK-630M six-barrel artillery guns, a doubled AK-630M-2 ‘Duet’ gun system with a Laska fire control radar. The warship can carry helicopters in its deck hangars.

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