Russia has committed to building its own helicopter landing ships to replace the two Mistral vessels that France built but then declined to deliver to the Kremlin because of Russian actions in Crimea and East Ukraine, reported TASS, a Kremlin-owned Russian news site, Wednesday. Admiral Viktor Chirkov, who broke the news at the international maritime Defense show in St Petersburg, said that the new ships would be better than the Mistrals and expects them to be delivered in 2020.
International Business Times: Russia to build its own version of France’s mistral helicopter landing ships after months of uncertainty
The Mistral-class assault warship Sevastopol, the second of two mammoth Mistral helicopter carriers, is docked on Nov. 26, 2014 in the western French port of Saint-Nazaire after being taken from its dry dock on Nov. 20.
