Russian Navy's Perekop training ship sails Vilkitsky Strait.

The Perekop training ship on a trans-Arctic voyage along the Northern Sea Route is sailing Vilkitsky Strait. It met the Vaigach icebreaker a day before in the Kara Sea which led the Arctic force of the Northern fleet headed by the Vice Admiral Kulakov big antisubmarine warfare ship last week, the fleet said.

Perokop (Picture source: Russian Ministry of Defense)

"The Perekop will sail Vilkitsky Strait to the Laptev Sea by the end of the day. The weather forecast says the ice situation up to Bering Strait is favourable and the ship will sail without icebreaker assistance," it said.

The Perekop has been carrying navy cadets since August and sailed the Baltic, North, Norwegian and Barents Seas and called at Severomorsk and Arkhangelsk, bypassed Novaya Zemlya and its northernmost Cape Zhelaniya. The ship has sailed close to four thousand nautical miles.

The Perekop sails the Arctic seas for the second year running. In 2018 it sailed the Northern Sea Route from Vladivostok to Severomorsk having visited ports of various countries.

Perekop is a Project 887 Smolny Training Ship. The Smolny class training ships were built for the Soviet Navy in the late 1970s. The Soviet designation was Project 887. Two ships are operated by the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy. The ships were designed to provide seagoing training facilities for the Soviet Navy. The ships had accommodation for 30 instructors and 300 cadets. They had a basic armament for self-defence and patrol duties.

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