Russian Shipyard Not Yet Considering Delivery Delay Over COVID-19

Project 636.3 Improved Kilo submarine Novorossiysk – Russian Ministry of Defense

Admiralty Shipyards, located in St. Petersburg, Russia, says it is not yet considering the postponement of deliveries to the Russian Navy over government quarantine measures.

In a statement on Thursday, the press service of the shipyard referred to such a postponement as “premature” for the time being. Russia recently enacted a week off from work, with the exception of certain personnel, for most businesses and is moving to implement more stricter lockdown measures in an effort to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The shipyard is producing a number of submarines for the Russian Navy that are slated to enter service in the upcoming years. For the Pacific Fleet, Admiralty Shipyards is producing six Project 636.3 submarines, the first of which was commissioned into the fleet in November. Another one is supposed to enter service late this year, while the other submarines in the order should be delivered from 2021 to 2022. Further submarines in the class may be laid down for the Baltic Fleet as early as this year.

Admiralty Shipyards is also in the process of producing a pair of Project 677 submarines for the Navy.

Globally, nearly one million cases of COVID-19 have been reported, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, though experts believe the true number of cases may be much higher due to low levels of testing. In Russia, over 3,500 cases have been reported, with a few dozen deaths.

As governments have worked to respond to the virus, through quarantine measures as well as repurposing some production lines to manufacture medical equipment, it is expected that economic growth across the world will dip in 2020.

Lead Analyst, Defense Markets and Strategic Analysis at Forecast International | + posts

Military markets analyst, covering Eurasia, Middle East, and Africa.

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Military markets analyst, covering Eurasia, Middle East, and Africa.

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