Admiral Kuznetsov maintenance contract will be signed in April 2018.

A contract for the repair of the Project 11435 aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov (NATO reporting name: Kuznetsov) will be signed in April 2018, a source in Russia’s defense industry told TASS.

Russian Navy Aircraft Carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. Picture via Reddit

"All necessary instructions have been issued. Since the repair of the ship will cost a lot, we expect to have a concrete document in April. The work began last year, in October. The talk is about the fault detection, the determination of the scope of work and preparatory works," the source said. According to the source, the ship will be repaired "much earlier than planned."

The contract for the repair and upgrade of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov will have a duration of three years and will be signed between the Russian Defense Ministry and the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) in the first quarter of 2018. The Project 11435 aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov is designed to gain sea and air supremacy in the fleet’s area of operation to ensure its combat sustainability, deliver air strikes against the enemy’s targets and support amphibious landing operations.

The Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier of project 11435 is designated to win supremacy at sea and in the air to promote sustainability of the naval forces, strike at adversary positions, and support landing operations. The warship became operational in 1990. Its full displacement is 58 thousand tons and the length is 304.5 meters. Full speed power is 200000HP and the speed is close to 30 knots. Besides an air wing of 24-26 aircraft and 12 helicopters, the Admiral Kuznetsov is armed with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles. It has a skijump and 2 aircraft elevators to facilitate the operations of the aviation. The crew of the carrier comprises 1300 men and the personnel of the air wing is 660 people.

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