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New frigate on the water

The "Admiral Gorshkov" will be the biggest new Russian navy vessel in 15 years.

The biggest new navy vessel in almost two decades is ready to be handed over to the Northern Fleet.

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The 4500 deadweight ”Admiral Gorshkov” is the first of Russia’s new series of frigates. Two years after schedule, the ship is now getting prepared to leave the Northern Yard in St. Petersburg and head towards Severomorsk in the Kola Peninsula.

The frigate is this month undergoing testing in the Gulf of Finland, the Russian Armed Forces inform in a press release.

The construction of the ”Admiral Gorshkov” was started in 2006 and was orginally to be concluded in 2012. The vessel is the first of the project 22350, and will be the biggest new Navy vessel built in Russia the last 15 years.

Russia plans the construct up to 12 vessels of the kind in the course of the next decade. So far, four vessels are in the making, all of them at the Northern Fleet in St. Petersburg. Reportedly, all of Russia’s four fleets will get the new ship in their ranks.

While ”Admiral Gorshkov” will be included in the Northern Fleet, the subsequent ”Admiral Kasatonov”, “Admiral Golovko” and ”Admiral Isakov” might end up in Sevastopol and Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

One of the reasons for the major delays with the frigate is the parallel constuction of the smaller navy vessels of the project 11356. The ship is believed to cost about $500 million.