Russian President Vladimir Putin from a cutter reviewed Russian fleet formations during the Main Naval Parade on July 26, 2020. With Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (right) and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Nikolai Evmenov. Photo courtesy of President of Russia website.
This article was originally published June 8, 2021, on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Russia is building its first naval ship to be fully equipped with stealth technology to make it very difficult to detect, the RIA Novosti state news agency reported, quoting two separate sources in the country’s military shipbuilding sector.
According to a report from the agency on June 8, the Mercury naval corvette is expected to be ready to be handed to the navy in 2022 as the hull of the vessel dubbed Project 20386 has already been built.
The report also said the vessel will be equipped with cruise missiles, antiaircraft missiles, and artillery, and will be capable of locating and destroying submarines.
It added that although some Russian warships have carried stealth technology, such as a radar-absorbing coating, none of the previous vessels has had full stealth technology.
Russia has increased investment in its navy as part of President Vladimir Putin’s move to revamp the military.
But with ties with the West at their worst since the end of the Cold War, the process has been complicated by Western sanctions over Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 and its ongoing support of separatists in eastern Ukraine, where more than 13,200 people have been killed in fighting since April 2014.
Copyright (c)2021 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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