Vice Prime Minister inspected Yantar shipyard

27.08.2010 Russian vice premier Igor Sechin visited Yantar shipyard (Kaliningrad) to assess whether it is capable to build Mistral-type helicopter carriers.

The delegation which also included representatives of French defense ministry visited Kaliningrad within a framework of a "familiarization tour" around Russian shipyards. Being the chairman of United Shipbuilding Corporation, Igor Sechin in the nearest time will assess capabilities of national yards to execute the carrier-building order. Apart from Yantar, shipyards of St. Petersburg and the Far East are striving for this opportunity.

Without announcing Yantar's chances of success, the governmental delegation stated that details of the future order were still being up for debate; in particular, at current stage not only the site is uncertain but number of ships to be built, too. French party insists on the "mixed" variant when two ships would be launched in Europe and only two vessels would be constructed in Russia. On the other hand, Russian shipbuilders want all helicopter carriers to have Russian "citizenship".

Another significant fact is that building of Russian Mistrals will in any case require modernization of production at Yantar shipyard. However, representatives of the yard say they are ready for such changes.

We recall that Russian defense ministry's plans to buy ready-to-use ships from France without involvement of national shipyards attracted attention of the Federal Antimonopoly Service and JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation. As a result of various inspections, it was decided that a Russian-French commission would inspect three Russian shipyards and choose the most suitable for the Mistral construction.