ST. PETERSBURG, November 14 (RIA Novosti) – New warships for the Russian navy should be built from ready-to-assembly blocks, navy chief Adm. Viktor Chirkov said Wednesday.
“This is our demand as a customer because the modular principle of construction from ready-to-assembly blocks will not only speed up the designing of the vessels but will also reduce the cost of their construction,” Chirkov said, summing up the results of a conference on the future of military shipbuilding through 2050.
“The Russian navy could receive the first such ship by 2018-2020,” the naval commander said.
According to Chirkov, the modular principle envisions the installation of functional blocks of equipment, including power, communication and navigation units, as well as weapons systems. These blocks could then be quickly replaced for a specific task assigned to the warship, and the vessels could carry out missions that currently require several warships of different classes.
Chirkov said that half of the funds allocated to the navy under Russia’s ambitious state arms procurement program through 2020 will be spent on the construction of submarines and surface warships.
The government has budgeted 20 trillion rubles ($641 billion) for a comprehensive rearmament of Russia's armed forces that will see the share of modern weaponry reach 30 percent by 2015 and 70 percent by 2020.
The navy is expected to receive new nuclear-powered and diesel-electric submarines, as well as destroyers, corvettes, small artillery ships and landing ships.
