MOSCOW. Jan 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The current structure of the Russian Navy will make it mostly applicable in tackling tasks in the near-water zone in the coming few years, a Russian senator said.
"The Navy, given its current lineup, will mostly be a fleet operating in the near-water sea zone, capable of fulfilling the task of strategic deterrence, and tasks in the near-water and, partly, in distant-water zones," Vyacheslav Popov, the chairman of the Federation Council's National Maritime Policy Commission, said in an interview, published by the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on December 30.
On the structure of the Russian Navy, Popov said that, "missile carrying strategic submarines will constitute the bulk of the Navy, as previously."
"New-generation strategic submarines are being built under the current programs. The first such submarine, equipped with new missile systems now in the final stage of trials, is expected to be assigned to the Navy in 2009. They are to be manufactured serially to replace third-generation carriers, whose service life has expired, and become the combat backbone of Russia's naval strategic nuclear forces after 2018," Popov said.
The Navy's general-purpose forces will encompass all of the current branches, he said. "In accordance with the State Armaments Program until 2015, the construction of nuclear and diesel-powered submarines, of a frigate, and of corvettes, missile carrying ships and various types of mine-clearance, landing and hydrographic vessels will continue," Popov said.
Given the current geopolitical situation, Russia "must have a fully-fledged modern and balanced ocean-going fleet," he also said.
"We must start building an ocean-going fleet immediately. A state military shipbuilding program must be adopted for that," the senator said.