Russia Paid France First Tranche for Mistral

23.11.2011 First tranche for construction of Mistral-class assault landing ship was transferred to French company DCNS, told a source in Russian defense industry to Central Navy Portal.

The source did not specify the tranche amount. It was transferred by Rosoboronexport as a payment for the ship's technical documentation.

It was also told that the beginning of construction was postponed from Dec 2011 to Jan 2012. By now, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) has not received any license to start its part of construction in Russia so far.

The contract for procurement of two French Mistral-class landing ships was signed in June 2011 at St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in the presence of president Medvedev by Anatoly Isaikin, Director General of Rosoboronexport and Patrick Boissier, president of DCNS. The contract sum was EUR 1.2 bln including construction of two ships, training of crews, and license for equipment such as SENIT-9 data transfer system.

President of USC Roman Trotsenko said that the Russia's portion in the first two ships construction would be 40%. As for him, "our French partners came to unprecedented terms of cooperation and transferred technologies we're interested in. Particularly, they will give us software source codes for tactical data and communication systems".

As was earlier reported, Russian shipyards will build stern sections for Mistral ships.

Late in Dec 2010 Russia and France announced that USC and DCNS would build two Mistral-class ships in Saint-Nazaire (France) and other two – under license in Russia. However, the information about construction of Mistrals in Russia has not been officially confirmed so far.