MOSCOW, June 26 (RIA Novosti) - Russia’s Navy is to receive four new minesweepers by 2019 under Project 12700, with the first to be put into service in late 2015, the Russian Defense Ministry said Thursday.
A ceremony is to be held at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard in St. Petersburg on Friday to introduce the lead mine countermeasures vessel of the project, the Alexander Obukhov, named after a famed Soviet fleet boat commander and hero (1917-2009).
“The Alexander Obukhov minesweeper is the lead vessel in the series, and in April 2014, the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry to build three [additional] ships for the project. Under the contract, the ships are due to be delivered in 2016-2018,” the ministry said in a statement.
The 890-ton Alexander Obukhov minesweeper is 61 meters in length and ten meters in width, with a maximum speed of 16.5 knots and a crew of 44. The vessel, designed by the Almaz central marine construction bureau, searches for and destroys mines in the waters surrounding marine bases at a safe distance. The Alexander Obukhov is to join Russia’s Northern Fleet.
