Saint-Petersburg, Russia based Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard (a company of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) says it has launched the Yakov Balyayev minesweeper of Project 12700 today, 29 January 2020.
The ship was laid down in December 2017. Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard is set to complete outfitting during the inter-navigation period which is to be followed by a series of mooring tests. The ship will commence sea trials in spring with the delivery scheduled summer 2020.
The Yakov NBalyayev is the forth minesweeper of Project 12700 (Aleksandrit) built by Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard. The Alexandr Obukhov, lead ship of 12700 series, was delivered to the customer in December 2016. The Ivan Antonov, the first serial ship, joined the fleet in the end of 2018. The third one named the Vladimir Yemelyanov joined the fleet of RF Navy in December 2019. Three more minesweepers, including the Georgy Kurbatov, the Peotr Ilyichev and the Anatoly Shlemov, are under construction at the shipyard.
This mine countermeasures vessel of Project 12700 was designed by Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau. The ship of the new generation features the most advanced technology and naval architecture and marine engineering, the world's largest monolithic hull of fiber-glass plastic made by the vacuum infusion method. Monolithic hulls fabricated from glass-reinforced plastic feature higher strength and survivability compared to steel hulls. They also have lower mass and longer life cycle (over 30 years).
Key characteristics: displacement - 890 t, length – 61.6 m, breadth – 10.3 m, speed at full displacement – 16 knots, crew – 44. The ship features high maneuverability and offers comfortable accommodation of the crew.
Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard JSC, a part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, was set up in 1912. The shipyard has built over 600 warships and vessels for the Russian Navy and foreign customers (13 countries worldwide). Currently, the shipyard builds missile boats, trawlers, passenger and work vessels for various purposes and is about to start the large-scale construction of mine warships of the new generation for the Russian Navy and foreign countries. Today, the shipyard is the leader of composite shipbuilding in Russia and the only plant in the country to build warships and civil vessels of 4 types of materials: composite materials, shipbuilding steel, nonmagnetic steel, aluminum and fiberglass. The shipyard has mastered the technology of building hulls of composite materials through vacuum infusion method.
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Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard lays down ocean minesweeper Yakov Belyayev for RF Navy (photo) >>>>