Shipbuilders suggest constructing more corvettes and frigates for Russian Navy

The St. Petersburg-based Severnaya Verf Shipyard has come up with a proposal to boost the number of corvettes and frigates that are built for the Russian Navy, Shipyard CEO Igor Ponomaryov told TASS on Wednesday.

"We are building a series of ships for the Navy and are giving our proposals on increasing the construction volume and the number of new-generation frigates and corvettes. The Defense Ministry is working through these issues and I believe that corresponding decisions will be made at the state level. We can build simultaneously up to eight corvette-and frigate-class ships," the chief executive said.

The program of building ships for the Navy should be focused on long series of warships, which will make the process of their creation noticeably cheaper, he added.

"We are convincing both the Defense Ministry and the Navy in every possible way that ships should be built in long series as this is cheaper for the country and this is technologically more convenient for a shipyard and for a design bureau. Short series should be avoided: they will be expensive and lead ships will be delivered for acceptance much longer with the newest equipment. As for long series, it will be cheaper to train the crews: equipping training centers is cheaper and supplying spare parts is simpler," he added.

The Severnaya Verf (formerly, the Putilovskaya Verf) is a ship-building factory founded in 1912. The factory is a leading enterprise in the ship-building industry and has floated out about 600 surface ships and vessels over its history.