MOSCOW. Feb 1 (Interfax-AVN) - Baltiisky Zavod shipyards will send an assembled stern of the Russia-ordered Mistral-class helicopter carrier to France in the summer of 2013, United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) spokesman Alexei Kravchenko told Interfax-AVN on Friday.
The stern consists of 120 hermetically linked sections that the shipyard has built as a subcontractor, he said.
"Under a contract signed in June 2011, the stern will be sent to France by sea in the summer of 2013 and this will mean that Russian shipbuilders have fulfilled the obligation to build the hull," Kravchenko said.
Kravchenko has confirmed that the keel-laying ceremony for the first Mistral will be held in Saint Nasaire on Friday. But he denied media reports on technical details, allegedly citing a high-placed USC official concerning the construction of the hull of the ship in Russia and the cost of the helicopter carriers ordered.
"These reports are not true, while the source allegedly cited is a 100 percent fiction," Kravchenko said.
In fact, 75 sections of the first Mistral's stern are in various stages of readiness at Baltiisky Zavod, not 30 as media reported. Forty have been assembled and are in the shipyard's stocks, while 35 are piled nearby waiting to be assembled."
"The 30 smaller sections of the stern reportedly to be sent to France shortly, cannot be sent to France physically and the 'high-placed official quoted' could not have been unaware of that," he said.
"Baltiisky Zavod has yet to finalize the assembly of the 120 sections being built under the contract, combine them hermetically and deliver the assembled stern to France. Under the contract, this is to be done in the summer of 2013," Kravchenko said.
"Media reports on the cost of the helicopter carriers bought in France are around 200 million Euros overstated, while speculating on the future of the second Mistral pair for Russia is absolutely not within the competence of the corporation," he said.