Northern Fleet’s command has decided to invite to a tender to have the large landing ship “Mitrofan Moskalenko” scrapped. The 11.500 tons of steel the vessel is made of, has a value of around €1.9 million, a source in the military-industrial complex says to Izvestia. In comparison Russia has agreed with France to pay €1.25 for the brand new “Mistral” helicopter-carrier. To have the old soviet-built vessel reconstructed with modern electronics and armaments will cost almost the same as two brand new corvettes.
In addition to the economic side of the question comes the strategic. Russia is reducing its naval landing capacities and will by 2020 have only four larger landing ships – two of the “Mistral” class and two of the new Ivan Gren class.
“Russia has no plans right now for any amphibious assault landing anywhere”, the military source says to Izvestia.
