Russia to set latest minesweeper of Project 12700 afloat on May 30.

The Project 12700 third advanced minesweeper Vladimir Yemelyanov will be floated out at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard in St. Petersburg on May 30, a Navy spokesman said on Tuesday, May 21.

The first Project 12700 Alexandrit-class MCM vessel (Picture Source: Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard)

"The ships of this class have a unique and the world’s largest hull made of monolith glass-fibre reinforced plastic and the most advanced mine countermeasures armament," the spokesman said. In the immediate future, "the Russian Navy will operate about 40 Project 12700 ships," the spokesman noted.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet expects to get the minesweeper Vladimir Yemelyanov in 2020 after the warship undergoes state trials. The minesweeper’s crew was formed by May 20.

Project 12700 Alexandrit-class coastal-type minesweepers are referred to the new generation of minesweeping forces and are designed to fight sea mines, which the new ships can encounter in the sea and at the seabed without entering the dangerous zone. The minesweepers can employ various sweeps, as well as remotely controlled and autonomous underwater drones. The minesweepers of this Project displace 890 tonnes, are 62 meters long and ten meters wide and have a crew of 44 men.

The Project 12700 lead ship Alexander Obukhov was delivered to the Navy in 2016. In late 2018, the Shipyard transferred the Project’s second (first serial-produced) minesweeper Ivan Antonov to the Navy. Apart from the Vladimir Yemelyanov, two more Alexandrit-class minesweepers, the Georgy Kurbatov and the Yakov Balyayev, are being built at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard.

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