"Preparations to float out Project 18280 intelligence gathering ship Ivan Khurs have begun at the Severnaya Verf Shipyard. The float-out is planned for late April 2017," the shipyard said in a statement.
The vessel will be delivered to the Russian Navy by the end of the year, the shipbuilder said.
Project 18280 ships are designed to provide communications and operations control to naval forces, as well as to conduct electronic warfare, gathering radio and electronic intelligence and carrying out the surveillance of US missile defenses.
The Yuriy Ivanov, the first Project 18280 vessel, was launched in 2013 and commissioned with the Northern Fleet in 2015. With a displacement of 4,000 metric tons, the ship has range of 8,000 nautical miles and is capable of tracking large numbers of radio signals over a wide range of frequencies.
