Russia will build amphibious assault ships, rather than helicopter carries, which will be capable of transporting helicopters, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told Sputnik on Monday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2018) Russia will build amphibious assault ships, rather than helicopter carries, which will be capable of transporting helicopters, Russian Industry and Trade Minister Denis Manturov told Sputnik on Monday.
Earlier in the day, media reported, citing Manturov, that helicopter carriers would not be built by Russia.
"Russia will not manufacture helicopter carriers in their traditional form. I would like to note that the shipbuilding program provides for the construction of amphibious assault ships, whose landing craft units (helicopters, landing boats and amphibious armored vehicles) will be placed inside the hull and on its deck," Manturov indicated.
Russia began considering the construction of domestically manufactured helicopter carriers after a joint contract with France for deliveries of the vessels was nullified.
In 2011, Russia's Rosoboronexport and French industrial company DCNS (currently known as Naval Group) signed a 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion) contract for the deliveries of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers to Russia. France was supposed to have handed over the first vessel, called the Vladivostok, to Russia in 2014, but due to the developments in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions against Russia that year, then French President Francois Hollande decided to suspend the contract. In 2015, the two parties terminated the contract, after which the helicopter carriers were purchased by Egypt.
