Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) has delivered four warships to the Russian navy in 2016 so far, eight more vessels are expected to be supplied by the end of the year, USC Head Alexei Rakhmanov said.
“Our delivery schedule consists of 12 vessels this year. Four of those have already been delivered to the customer, while eight are at the final stages of commissioning… By end of year, we will deliver at least six, ideally - eight vessels,” Rakhmanov said in an interview with Rossiya-24 television.
Meanwhile, Igor Ponomarev, Vice President of USC said that Slava-class missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov went through repairs and is scheduled to return to Russia’s Northern Fleet main base in Severomorsk by end of 2016.
“The repairs and modernization of cruiser Marshal Ustinov at the Zvezdochka shipyard have been finished. The ship is undergoing sea trials. In the fourth quarter of 2016 the ship will be transferred to its permanent base,” Igor Ponomarev told RIA Novosti earlier this month.
The Slava-class cruisers were designed as surface strike ships with some anti-air and ASW capability, and have a primary armament of sixteen SS-N-12 Sandbox nuclear-capable supersonic anti-ship missiles. The Marshal Ustinov, a Slava-class missile cruiser, was launched in 1982 and commissioned with the Russian Northern Fleet in 1986.
Marshal Ustinov had been undergoing modernization since 2011. The completion of the work, which included repairs of the propulsion system and overhaul of the ship’s missile, communications and navigation systems, was originally scheduled for 2014. However, diagnostics revealed that the majority of electrical cables on the vessel must be replaced, leading to further delays.
