ST. PETERSBURG, June 28. /TASS/. Design work on the Priboy advanced helicopter carrier has started, and the shipyards that can build ships of this type are already known, United Shipbuilding Corporation’s (USC) Vice President for Naval Construction, Igor Ponomaryov, told TASS.

"The USC enterprises have started working on this project: there is a project pipeline and there is understanding of all basic technologies. The USC has enterprises ready to build such a ship: the modernized Northern Shipyard, as well as the Baltic Shipyard and Sevmash, that has a vast experience in building large surface ships," he said.

Earlier, the USC head Alexey Rakhmanov said in an interview with TASS that the construction of the Priboy helicopter carries is included in the state armaments program for 2018 - 2025.

The model of the Priboy amphibious assault ship, with a capacity of 14,000 tonnes, was first displayed at the Russian Navy’s exhibition stand at the Army-2015 forum.

In May, 2017, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov told reporters that the first Russian helicopter carrier would appear by around 2022, but he did not specify its type.