Fire damaged submarine chaser "Kerch" to be scrapped

The Kara-class missile cruiser "Kerch" of the Black Sea fleet that sustained damages in a fire in November this year will be decommissioned and scrapped, TASS reports citing sources in the shipbuilding industry familiar with the matter.

Russian Defense officials decided to scrap the Kerch as it would be too expensive to order overhaul and retrofitting of the outdated warship with armament that does not meed modern requirements. The name "Kerch" could be assigned to one of the new ships of the Russian Navy.

The sources said the ship will be scrapped in 2015 at one of the Russian shipyards. Most likely, it will be one of the defense enterprises based on the Crimean peninsula, but not The 13th Shipyard.