Russia will launch the Vladimir Yemelyanov on May 30 claiming the minesweeper to be the world's largest hull made of monolithic fiberglass.
She is being built at the Sredne-Nevsky shipyard in St. Petersburg and is anticipated to be delivered to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 2020.
Russia plans to build about 40 such vessels - the first, Alexander Obukhov, was delivered in 2016, and the second, Ivan Antonov, was delivered in 2018. Two more of the Alexandrit-class vessels are under construction at the yard.
The ship's monolithic fiberglass hull was formed by vacuum infusion and has a much lower mass than metal. This significantly increases its strength, says the Russian Navy. “Such a body is not afraid of corrosion, and the service life, subject to the norms of operation, is practically unlimited.”
The ship has a displacement of 890 tons, length of 62 meters (203 feet), width of 10 meters (33 feet), full speed of 16 knots and a crew of 44. To combat mines, she is capable of deploying various types of trawls as well as remote-controlled and autonomous underwater vehicles.
Sredne-Nevsky Shipbuilding Plant JSC is the leader of composite shipbuilding in Russia and the only enterprise in the country that can build ships of four types of materials: composite materials, shipbuilding, low magnetic steel, aluminum-magnesium alloys.
The Maritime Executive