Russia's Admiral Kuznetsov Aircraft Carrier To Be Repaired By 2021 - USC President

The repair and modernization of the Russian Navy's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, will be completed in 2021, possibly with a small delay, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) President Alexey Rakhmanov told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 19th March, 2019) The repair and modernization of the Russian Navy's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, will be completed in 2021, possibly with a small delay, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) President Alexey Rakhmanov told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday.

"We have a plan that will provide repair and modernization of the ship in 2021. Maybe there will be a 2-4 month delay. The plan is that capacities will be modernized at shipyard No. 35 in Murmansk. The first part of this process is dry docks," Rakhmanov said.

On October 30, a PD-50 floating dry dock sank at the shipbuilding plant that was performing repairs on the Admiral Kuznetsov at SRZ-35 shipyard in Roslyakovo.

Rakhmanov then said that a crane fell on the ship, leaving a hole above the waterline that measured 20 square meters (215 square feet).

The Admiral Kuznetsov was commissioned in 1991 and has not undergone any major overhauls except for a two-year refit between 1996 and 1998. It took part in the anti-terrorist campaign in Syria in late 2016 - early 2017.

The proposed modernization and refitting, which commenced in October 2017, are expected to extend the aircraft carrier's service life by 10-20 years.