All news

Black Sea Fleet lifting-and-mooring vessel to join Russian ships in Mediterranean

The ship has left the naval base in Sevastopol and entered the Black Sea straits

MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Russia's Project 141 KIL-158 lifting-and-mooring vessel with the Black Sea Fleet support unit will join the Russian Navy’s Mediterranean standing naval force, the fleet’s press office chief, Nikolay Voskresensky, said on Tuesday.

He added that the ship had left the naval base in Sevastopol and entered the Black Sea straits.

"Once on the high seas, the diesel-electric vessel captained by Nikolay Perun will join the Russian Navy’s Mediterranean standing naval force to provide technical support," Voskresensky added.

The lifting-and-mooring vessel is designed for deploying booms, nets and mooring equipment to a depth of 300 m. The vessel can deploy moorings weighing up to 100 tons. It also can be used for setting up and breaking down floating landing stages and the base for floating docks and for supporting gunfire of other ships. The KIL-158 can haul a deep-water submersible for rescuing the crews of sunken submarines.

The vessel was on mission at the Syrian port of Tartus in 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2003. It received its preventive maintenance in Varna, Bulgaria, between October 2007 and March 2008. The KIL-158 operated with a fleet auxiliary/rescue vessel detachment participating in international rescue forces Exercise Bold Monarch near the Spanish shores in summer 2011. Its current home station is the South Bay in Sevastopol.