Russian Northern Fleet disposes of the Mitrofan Moskalenko large landing ship.

The Russian Navy's Northern Fleet has decided to dispose of the Mitrofan Moskalenko large landing ship (LLS), which has been in reserve since 2002, a source in the Russian ship repair industry told TASS.

The Mitrofan Moskalenko large landing ship of Project 1174 (Picture Source: Russian MoD)

"The large landing ship was towed from Severomorsk to Murmansk for subsequent scrapping yesterday," the source said clarifying that the Mitrofan Moskalenko would most likely be scrapped at the 35th Ship Repair Plant (a subsidiary of the Zvyozdochka ship repair centre, which is an affiliate of the United Shipbuilding Corporation).

The Mitrofan Moskalenko large landing ship of project 1174 Nosorog was laid down in 1984. The warship joined the Russian Navy in 1990.

Project 1174 Nosorog ships were conceived and designed as oceanic vessels to deliver and land airborne troops. The Yantar Shipyard based in Kaliningrad built three warships of this project. Two of them have been in reserve until recently.

The project 1174 large landing ship was an amphibious assault vessel also known as a helicopter carrier. Its water displacement was 14,000 tons. It carried four Ka-29 helicopters. Several amphibious boats could stay in a well-dock. An empty tank hold and a well-dock could accommodate up to 50 PT-76 tanks or eighty armoured personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles or up to 120 automobiles. The hardware could be loaded in any combination. The number of paratroopers was close to 500 men.

Russia was considering a possibility to restore the technical readiness of two Project 1174 large landing ships when France refused to hand over two Mistral-class helicopter carriers, which it had built for Russia, to Russia.

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