By TASS Russian news agency
The aircraft carrier is to sail out in June-July 2023 for trials. “The Admiral Kuznetsov has to be handed over to the fleet in late 2023,” Korolev said.
“The overhaul and upgrade of the Admiral Kuznetsov will be completed in the first half of 2023. The avionics, flight deck with the ski jump, electric equipment, the power plant will be replaced. The carrier will receive a new fully domestic takeoff and landing control system. The airpower will remain the same. The carrier will have no attack weapons, it will be armed with Pantsir-M antiaircraft complex.”
Vice President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), Vladimir Korolev.
USC chief Alexey Rakhmanov earlier told the Vedomosti newspaper that the running trials of the carrier were postponed because of delayed equipment supplies.
The Defense Ministry signed a contract with the USC in April 2018 for a medium overhaul and limited modernization of the Admiral Kuznetsov up to 2022. However, the carrier caught fire on December 12, 2019. Officials said the damage to a space of 500 square meters was not critical.
