First Russian Mistral-class helicopter carrier launched in French town of Saint-Nazaire

The ceremony of launching of Russia's first helicopter carrier of the Mistral-class has taken place in the French town of Saint-Nazaire, according to the STX France, the company that assembled the ship's hull.

 "The launch ceremony began at 10.45 am local time [12.45 am Moscow time]. It will last until noon," STX France press service said.

 

 Several shipyards built Russia's first Mistral called Vladivostok.

STX France built the ship's hull and Russia's Baltiysky Zavod, which is a part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), built the ship's stern.

 STX France and Baltiysky Zavod are building parts for the second Mistral-class helicopter carrier called Sevastopol.

Rosoboronexpert and France's DCSN signed a contract for two Mistral ships in June 2011.

 

The USC is subcontractor of STX France. The Mistral-class helicopter carrier is 199 meters long. Its beam is 32 meters and draft is 6.2 meters. The ship's standard displacement is 22,600 tonnes. A Mistral crew has 177 crewmembers. It can carry 481 passengers. The ship will carry Kamov Ka-52L helicopters. It may also be equipped with Russia's Serna and Dyugon landing vessels.

Many military pundits say the Mistrals are more than just helicopter carriers. They are in fact a class of multi-purpose amphibian assault vessels capable of carrying armed vehicles, helicopter groups and a command center. The warship built for Russia, the Vladivostok, will be first sent to the Severnaya shipyard in St. Petersburg where it will be outfitted with additional equipment and weapons. The design of Russia’s Mistral helicopter carriers has also been altered. For instance, they got a stronger hull that will allow the navy ship to perform tasks beyond the Arctic circle. Viktor Baranets, a Russian military expert, shared with the Voice of Russia more details on the new ship.

"French vessels will be redesigned to meet Russian standards. They will be equipped with Russian weapons and carry about 16 heavy or 32 light choppers, as well as some serious anti-aircraft systems. They’ll also be provided with tactical nuclear complexes, such as supersonic cruise missiles Kalibri and some serious radar systems," Mr. Baranets said.

Another thing on the list of readjustments is the ship’s deployment system and infrastructure engineering facilities. The Vladivostok is set to join the Russian Navy in the Pacific by 2014.

Vladivostok helicopter carrier due for maiden voyage next March

Russia’s Mistral-type Vladivostok helicopter carrier will make its maiden voyage in March 2014, Yves Destefanis, a senior executive of the French DCNS naval shipbuilding company, told reporters on Tuesday.

"The maiden voyage is scheduled for March 2014. And in October 2014, the ship will set out for St. Petersburg where the finishing touches will be put," Destefanis said at a ceremony of putting Russia’s first Mistral-type helicopter carrier afloat.

Russia to launch its first Mistral-class helicopter carrier on October 15

The Russian Navy will launch its first Mistral-class helicopter carrier on October 15, that is according to Interfax news agency, citing the French company STX France.

The second Mistral-class ship 'Sevastopol' is scheduled for the delivery in October 2014, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin.

The Mistral-class multipurpose ships have enough capacity to carry 16 helicopters, up to 40 tanks and some 600 troops. With addition of their operational range of nearly 40,000 km, the new-generation vessels are said to be of a strategic importance for the Russian navy.

The 1.2-billion-euro contract for two Mistral-class ships was signed between Russia and France in 2011. Although the bilateral project has been subject to criticism for being 'political,' rather than beneficial, its proponents argue that as well as strengthening the country’s ties, it would also give Russia access to the latest naval technology.

At least one of the Mistral-class ships is said to be intended for Russia’s Pacific Fleet, which has already prompted concerns in Japan.

Pacific Fleet forming crews of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers
The Pacific Fleet human resources department is recruiting contract servicemen to operate the Vladivostok and Sevastopol Mistral-class helicopter carriers, Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. 1st Rank Roman Martov said.

"The ships will have crews of over 200 men, and all of them will be officers, warrant officers or contract servicemen. The Pacific Fleet human resources department is recruiting crewmembers. The crews of the helicopter carriers will be formed in November 2013," Martov said.

Apart from the standard fleet recruitment requirements, the recruitment commission will pay attention to the education of candidates.

Warrant officers and contract servicemen need at least to have completed secondary specialized education to qualify.

Psychological tests will also be important.

Qualification rules will be strict for the prospective pilots and technicians, Martov said.

He said that pilots would go on long-distance voyages aboard the helicopter carriers and experience all aspects of the naval service.

After the first helicopter carrier's hull is launched, the crews will be trained in St. Petersburg and accept the ships in France, the fleet spokesman said.

First Mistral class helicopter carrier to be handed over to Russian Navy in 2014 – Russia’s defense industry
The first Mistral class helicopter carrier “Vladivostok” will be handed over to the Russian Navy on November 1 next year, a high official with Russia’s defense industry has said on Friday.

The launch of the ship will take place in Saint-Nazaire, France, on October 15 this year.

“During the year we’re going to finish its equipment and to test it in order to hand it over to the Russian Navy on November 1, 2014,” the official claimed.

After this, the vessel will arrive in St Petersburg where, as planned, it will be armed and the equipment of the ship will be finished at the Severnaya Verf shipyard.

Rosoboroneksport and the French DCNS company signed a $1.2-billion contract for building of the first two helicopter carriers in June 2011.

United Shipbuilding Corporation is involved in a deal as a contractor of a French builder of ships, STX France, situated in Saint-Nazaire. Two other ships of this class are to be built in Russia in accordance with the French technology.

 

French Mistral Warships for Russia to Get Russian Weaponry

The Mistral class amphibious assault ships built in France for the Russian Navy will be equipped with Russian-made weaponry, Navy Commander Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky said on Thursday.

“The main armaments installed on the ships will be Russian-made,” Vysotsky said.

The admiral said that the Mistrals for the Russian Navy will be better armed than their French counterparts for staving off airborne and submarine threats.

The Mistral class ships in service with the French Navy are armed with two Simbad launchers for Mistral missiles and four 12.7 mm M2-HB Browning machine guns. They are considered under-equipped for self-defense.

Vysotsky also mentioned that the Russian Mistrals could be armed with missiles equipped with “special Russian-designed warheads,” although he did not specify the nature of these warheads.

He stressed that Mistral warships will operate as part of naval task forces and significantly enhance their combat potential.

Russia and France signed a $1.2-billion contract on two French-built Mistral class ships, including the transfer of sensitive technology, in June 2011. Two more ships are expected to be 80% built in Russia, 20% in France.

The first Mistral class warship is expected to be put in service with the Russian Navy in three years.

© RIA Novosti.

France's Mistral amphibious assault ship

A Mistral-class ship is capable of carrying 16 helicopters, four landing vessels, 70 armored vehicles, and 450 troops.

The Russian military has said it plans to use Mistral ships in its Northern and Pacific fleets.

Navy destroyers will be retired before replacements arrive, documents reveal

Canada's navy will have to do more with less in a few years as internal documents and Defence Department insiders have confirmed the country's aging fleet of destroyers will be retired before replacements are ready.

The revelation highlights the pressure the Conservative government and Canadian Forces are under as they race against the clock to start cutting steel on new vessels through their promised $35 billion national shipbuilding procurement strategy.

"It just kind of echoes the same worries that we've had," said Andrew Warden, head of maritime affairs at the Navy League of Canada. "These projects keep being delayed and delayed, and the ships just keep getting older and older."

The navy's Iroquois-class destroyers were built in the early 1970s and underwent a major upgrade in the 1990s so they could provide anti-submarine warfare, anti-aircraft defence as well as command-and-control capabilities for Canadian and allied naval task forces.

Over the decades, the destroyers have participated in missions off Canada's shores and around the world, including in the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Storm, the Indian Ocean after 9/11 and in Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake.

Briefing notes prepared for Associate Defence Minister Julian Fantino in May 2011 and obtained by Postmedia News state the destroyers "will reach the end of their planned service life beginning in 2017, at which point they will be over 43 years old."

Yet the notes also say the Iroquois-class "will not be replaced before it is retired," an assessment that was confirmed Wednesday by a senior official within National Defence.

The navy is putting in place plans to ensure the loss of the destroyers won't negatively impact the maritime force's capabilities, and Warden said Canada's 12 Halifax-class frigates can take on many of the tasks currently assigned to the destroyers.

However, the loss of the Iroquois-class "will definitely limit some of our options" in terms of what type of operations the navy can undertake during that period, Warden said, while the key question is exactly how long the gap will last.

Treasury Board, which holds the federal purse strings, reportedly agreed on Tuesday to release several hundred million dollars so the Defence Department could move ahead and begin designing the vessels that will replace the destroyers and frigates.

This is considered a significant step and the hope is that negotiations with Irving Shipyard in Halifax and associated contractors responsible for building the next generation of naval surface combatants will be finished by 2016, with the first ship delivered in the early 2020s.

But Fantino's briefing notes warned that the "critical" $26.6-billion Canadian-surface-combatant (CSC) project to replace the destroyers as well as the frigates would need to enter the design phase in 2011 to ensure the rest of the process — including contract negotiations with industry — moved ahead smoothly.

On top of that, senior naval officers noted at a recent conference there were more than 400 people working directly on the Halifax-class frigate program in the 1980s and another 1,000 contributing in other ways.

In contrast, there are about 30 currently assigned to the project that will replace the frigates and Iroquois-class destroyers, with that number expected to peak at only a couple hundred in the coming years.

"There needs to be an understanding across this community about the relative fragility of the staff capacity that we are seeing," deputy naval commander Rear-Admiral Mark Norman said at the time. "This is not anyone's fault. It's just a reality."

National Defence is already facing the reality that the first naval vessels to be produced under the Conservative government's national shipbuilding plan — armed Arctic vessels — will be delivered three years later than anticipated.

Warden worried there will be a spill-over effect on the destroyers and frigates.

"It does not bode well that CSC is coming after the Arctic Offshore Patrol Ships and the AOPS have already been delayed," he said. "That means we're already three years behind."

Jim Carruthers, president of the Ottawa branch of the Naval Association of Canada, said delays are the price that must be paid to ensure the government's $35-billion shipbuilding plan not only produces vessels, but also positions the country as a global shipbuilding power.

"In an ideal world there wouldn't be any gap," he said of the destroyers. "And I expect there will be more delays. But it's the sensible thing to be done (building up the industry), and there was a price."

Warship Heads for ‘Test’ as Navy Denies Syria Role

A Russian amphibious landing ship, the Caesar Kunikov left the Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Tuesday for what a a Black Sea Fleet officer said was a routine exercise at a training base, after media reports earlier this week said it could be heading for Syria.

The Fleet command on Monday dismissed media reports that a large Russian amphibious ship carrying weapons and troops was en route to Syria.

Some Ukrainian media sources reported on Sunday, referring to CNN and other western media, that another large amphibious ship from the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Nikolai Filchenkov, was heading for the Syrian port of Tartus carrying weapons and marines to defend Russia’s naval facility.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice lashed out at Russia over its alleged arms supplies to Syria. Moscow strongly rejected the claims, saying that Russia was not “delivering to Syria, or anywhere else, items that could be used against peaceful demonstrators.”

According to UN estimates, about 12,000 people have been killed in Syria since the beginning of a popular uprising against President Assad in March 2011, which started with peaceful protests but has since grown into a low-level civil war.