The Russian Navy will receive five more Project 23130 logistic support tankers similar to the vessel Academician Pashin that entered service with Russia’s Northern Fleet on January 21, Chief of the Auxiliary Fleet Service in the Defense Ministry’s Transport Support Department Sergei Yepifanov said on Tuesday.
"As for the prospects of these vessels, the Russian defense minister made a decision in 2019 on building five more tankers of this Project," he said at the ceremony of hoisting the flag aboard the tanker Academician Pashin in the northwestern Murmansk Region.
The same-type tanker will join the Northern Fleet in 2024, he said, without specifying where the other four tankers of this Project would be delivered after they were built.
"This tanker is meant not specially for the Northern Fleet but for the entire Navy. All the tankers are universal and multi-functional and are intended for all the fleets. They have an unlimited range of their operation and feature an ice-class hull," he added.