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Russia’s cutting-edge helicopter carriers to provide flight deck for seaborne drones

"The drones will be capable of effectively providing fire support for an amphibious assault force, reporting on the tactical environment in the area of its landing and in the course of special operations, ferreting out and, if necessary, eliminating stealth watercraft," the source said

MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. The Project 23900 multi-purpose amphibious assault ships Ivan Rogov and Mitrofan Moskalenko currently under construction at the Zaliv Shipyard in Kerch on the Crimean Peninsula will be adapted for carrying strike and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles, a source in the shipbuilding industry told TASS on Tuesday.

"In addition to carrying a group of seaborne helicopters, the Project 23900 multi-purpose amphibious assault ships will carry and exercise control of a certain number of strike and reconnaissance rotary-wing drones on their board," the source said.

The drones based on the decks of Project 23900 amphibious assault ships will boost the helicopter carriers’ combat capabilities, the source emphasized.

"The drones will be capable of effectively providing fire support for an amphibious assault force, reporting on the tactical environment in the area of its landing and in the course of special operations, ferreting out and, if necessary, eliminating stealth watercraft," the source added.

TASS has no official confirmation of this information yet.

TASS reported in February 2021 that the Zaliv Shipyard had started building the hulls of two amphibious assault ships. It was reported in October 2021 that the helicopter carrier Mitrofan Moskalenko would enter service as the Black Sea Fleet’s flagship after the completion of its construction and the required infrastructure for its stationing was being prepared in Crimea’s Sevastopol.

Amphibious assault ships are capable of carrying a task force of heavy helicopters of various designation and sealifting from several hundred to 1,000 marines. They are furnished with a dock for amphibious assault landing boats and are also designed to carry armor. Russia’s first-ever domestic amphibious assault ships of this type, the Ivan Rogov and the Mitrofan Moskalenko, were laid down at the Zaliv Shipyard in Crimea on July 20, 2020. The Russian helicopter carriers are being built under Project 23900 engineered by the Zelenodolsk-based Design Bureau in the Volga area.