Mistral is the tender favorite because suits all arms export restrictions – expert

23.11.2010 French assault landing ship Mistral is the favorite of Russian Navy's tender for two helicopter carriers, considers Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Strategy and Technology Analytic Center (STAC).

"One can assert with high probability that French DCNS with its Mistral class command/expeditionary ship has the best chances in the tender", said Pukhov to Interfax-AVN.

He reminded that except for the French shipyard, other competitors may also attend the Russian tender; they are Spain with landing ship Juan Carlos I, Holland with helicopter carrier Johan de Wit, S Korean shipyard STX with amphibious ship Dokdo, and German TKM with project MDH200.

"Nonetheless, all those ships except for the German one are equipped with some American-made systems; International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) restricts export of such systems to Russia. Thus, theoretically the French offer is the only favorite", Pukhov said.

The expert emphasized that the German ship is a weak competitor to Mistral, "because this project exists only on paper".

As was reported, the tender winner will be named late in Nov; it is planned to tie the contract no later than in 2010. Reportedly, Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation also submitted offers.

Mistral class assault landing ship has standard displacement of 16,500 tons; full displacement is 21,300 tons (with full-loaded dock – 32,300 tons). Length is 199 meters; beam is 32 meters; draft is 6.2 meters; full speed is 18.8 knots; fuel range is up to 19,800 nautical miles. Air wing consists of 16 helicopters (8 transport and 8 attack ones). Six of them can be simultaneously placed on the flight deck.

At present, France has two Mistral class carriers in inventory; construction of the third ship is in progress.

According to unofficial information, the ship costs about EUR 600 mln.