ST. PETERSBURG. July 1 (Interfax-AVN) - Modernization and restoration of serviceability of a second of the four heavy nuclear-powered missile cruisers of Project 1144 Orlan, the Admiral Lazarev, is not planned. The ship will be scrapped, a source in Navy headquarters told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday.
Naval command did not deliberate on the cruiser's future in the previous period.
"A decision on restoration to service of the nuclear-powered cruiser Admiral Lazarev has not been made. It seems the ship will have to be scrapped next year," the source said.
In his words, no official documents to this effect have been issued. A document of the kind may be released before the end of this year.
In the opinion of the representative of Navy headquarters, the ship is morally obsolete and physically worn-out and it cannot wait for another few years for its serviceability to be restored.
Baltiysky Zavod built the Admiral Lazarev of Project 1144.2 under the original name of the Frunze. It was commissioned in 1984 and decommissioned from combat forces of the Pacific Fleet in 1999. Five years later the ship's nuclear power units were dismantled in Bolshoy Kamen and the cruiser was mothballed. Several attempts to restore serviceability of the ship have been made.
In December 2014 the Admiral Lazarev cruiser underwent dockside repairs at the 30th ship repairing plant of the Pacific Fleet. No decision on the future of the Admiral Lazarev has been made public until today.