SEVEROMORSK. March 5 (Interfax-AVN) - A new aircraft carrier will join the Russian Navy before 2017, Navy Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Kuroyedov said on Thursday.
The new aircraft carrier's blueprints will be completed by 2010 and it will join the Northern Fleet in 2016 or 2017, he told the servicemen of the 229th air regiment at a meeting marking the 50th birthday of Timur Apakidze, a Hero of Russia.
Another aircraft carrying cruiser is to be built for the Pacific Fleet, Kuroyedov said.
"Carrier-based aircraft have a future," Kuroyedov said. "We will see a new multi-role plane in three years," he said.