Today, on the day of the Leningrad siege breakthrough, the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) held a ceremony for laying down a Project 12700 mine countermeasures (MCM) vessel, code "Alexandrit".
By order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, the new minesweeper was named after Hero of the Soviet Union Semyon Agafonov. Semyon Mikhailovich Agafonov went through the Great Patriotic War and the Soviet-Japanese War, as part of a special reconnaissance detachment of the Northern Fleet and a separate special-purpose reconnaissance detachment of the Pacific Fleet.
Navy Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Evmenov emphasized the importance of the stage, noting that "there can never be too many minesweepers." This ship became the 12th in the Project 12700 line, and the plant plans to increase the construction rate to two minesweepers per year, emphasizing the demand for such vessels by the fleet.
The ship's project was developed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau, which is part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC). The Alexandrit-class ships, built by order of the Navy, represent a new generation of mine-sweeping forces and are designed to effectively combat naval mines. Their hull consists of monolithic fiberglass, formed by vacuum infusion. This material is not subject to corrosion and, if the operating standards are met, has an unlimited service life. In addition, this hull makes the minesweeper virtually invisible to potential enemy radars. The displacement of Alexandrit-class ships is about 890 tons, length - 62 meters, width - 10 meters, and the crew consists of 44 people.
Vladimir Seredokho, a representative of the plant, shared plans for the future, emphasizing that from 2025 the plant plans to increase production to two minesweepers per year.
A month ago, it became known that another minesweeper of this project, "Lev Chernavin", started the last state tests before being sent to the Baltic Fleet.