Northern Fleet cruiser to be handed over to Pacific Fleet
The Northern Fleet’s missile cruiser Admiral Ustinov may reinforce Russia’s Pacific Fleet in 2013 after repairs, a high-ranking official in the Russian Navy told RIA Novosti.
According to the admiral, the cruiser may be transferred from Severomorsk to Vladivostok to reinforce the grouping of the Pacific Fleet’s surface ships, adding that a final decision had not yet been made.
Admiral Ustinov’s transfer to the East is due to the quick ageing of the Pacific Fleet’s warships and the need for this kind of ships to support the combat stability of the grouping of the fleet’s strategic and multipurpose nuclear submarines, RIA Novosti’s source said.
The Marshal Ustinov, a Slava-class missile cruiser, was launched in 1982 and commissioned with the Russian Northern Fleet in 1986. The Russian navy has two other vessels of this class: The Black Sea Fleet’s flagship Moskva and the Pacific Fleet’s flagship Varyag.
