MOSCOW -- A new Russian minesweeper is set for launch later this month.
The Russian Ministry of Defense's press office announced that the Yakov Balyayev, a Project 12700 minesweeper, will be launched at a ceremony on January 24 at the Sredne-Nevsky shipyard. The event will be attended by senior officials in the Russian Navy. The Navy had noted last month that "the work of forming the hull and outfitting it with systems and mechanisms was completed aboard the ship," making it ready for launching.
The crew of the minesweeper are presently completing training at a Russian Navy facility located in St. Petersburg.
Following launching, the minesweeper will have its maritime systems installed and then begin dockside trials. It will progress from there to factory sea trials and then to state trials, after which it will be commissioned.
It is presently assumed that Yakov Balyayev will be commissioned either in late 2020 or early 2021.
Yakov Balyayev, laid down in December 2017, is the fifth minesweeper in the Project 12700 line of vessels, which are 62 meters long and displace nearly 900 tons. Three vessels have been commissioned -- the fourth, Georgiy Kurbatov, is scheduled for commissioning later this year -- and two more have been laid down, making for seven vessels in the Navy in the next few years. In a Navy press statement last month, Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov was quoted as saying, "There are plans to build several dozen Project 12700 ships. They have no rivals in the world by their characteristics."
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