KALININGRAD, January 23 (AVN) - A total of 60 percent of the Baltic Fleet supply vessels are time-expired, Colonel Oleg Karpov, chief of the electromechanical service in the fleet's auxiliary ships group, told the Military News Agency on Tuesday.
Most of the fleet's ships are long-livers, namely the Yakhroma tanker (built in 1955), the Irgiz transport (1957), the Indigirka transport (1954). Tankers Olekma, Yelnya and Lena were launched in the late 1960s.
According to Karpov, some 70 percent of vessels need repairing badly, while more than half want docking. Roughly half of the auxiliary ships were built abroad but they cannot be repaired there due to lack of money.
The auxiliary fleet carried over 230,000 passengers, assisted in 3,150 redeployments and tuggings and moved 152,000t of cargo last year. Degaussing and physical field measurement ships checked and degaussed 153 vessels of the Baltic Fleet. Auxiliary fleet tankers made 16 voyages last year to deliver fuel to the North-Eastern and Central Atlantic.