LE BOURGET, October 27. /TASS/. The St. Petersburg-based Baltic Shipyard will be able to build French Mistral-type helicopter carriers ‘without any problems’ if a decision is made on the construction of the third and fourth Mistral-type ships in Russia, Shipyard First Deputy CEO Vladimir Bazhenov said on Monday.

Under the contract with France for the delivery of the first two Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia, the Baltic Shipyard built the sterns for these ships. The volume of the shipyard’s work on the second Mistral ship was 50% larger than its part of work on the first Mistral, the Baltic Shipyard first deputy CEO said.

“No one should have any doubt: if the option for the third and fourth ships turns into a firm contract and a decision is made to build them on the territory of Russia, the Baltic Shipyard can fulfill this task without any problems,” Bazhenov said.

“We have all technical, technological, engineering and designing possibilities for this,” the Baltic Shipyard first deputy head said.

“The Baltic Shipyard’s capacity and resources certainly allow us to build a full-fledged Mistral-class ship,” he said.

Mistral contract

The €1.12 billion contract for building two Mistral-type ships was signed by the Russian defense exporting company Rosoboronexport and French DCNS in June 2011.

Under the contract, Russia is to receive the first of the two warships, the Vladivostok, in October this year. The second Mistral-class helicopter carrier, the Sevastopol, is expected to be handed over to Russia next year.

The Mistral-type helicopter carriers have a displacement of 21 tons, the maximum body length of 210 meters, the speed of 18 knots and the range of up to 20,000 miles.

The helicopter carrier can accommodate 450 people in addition to its crew of 180. It carries 16 helicopters, of which six can be simultaneously stored on the flight-deck, and can carry several dozen armored vehicles.

France will have to pay Russia a penalty, if it fails to fulfill the contract.