New Russian stealth warship suffers £225million of damage after catching fire during construction
- The blaze started on Friday in St Petersburg at the Severnaya Verf shipyard
- Footage showed devastating fire damage to the £307 million stealth ship, intended to carry Vladimir Putin’s lethal Mach-9 hypersonic missiles
- It has caused a major setback to the Kremlin’s naval modernisation project
A new Russian stealth warship has suffered £225million worth of damage after it caught fire during construction.
The scale of the blaze which started on Friday in St Petersburg has caused a major setback to the Kremlin’s naval modernisation.
Footage showed devastating fire damage to the £307 million stealth ship, intended to carry Vladimir Putin’s lethal Mach-9 hypersonic missiles.
A new Russian stealth warship has suffered £225million worth of damage after it caught fire during construction. Pictured: A still grab taken from footage of the fire in St Petersburg
The scale of the blaze (pictured) which started on Friday in St Petersburg has caused a major setback to the Kremlin’s naval modernisation
Pictured: Smoke can be seen rising from the construction yard in St Petersburg after the the corvette Provornyy (Agile) caught fire while it was under construction
Huge flames and thick smoke were seen rising from the corvette Provornyy (Agile) at Severnaya Verf shipyard where it was under construction.
The warship has been almost totally destroyed by the fire – the latest of a spate of mysterious blazes at top secret naval shipbuilding facilities – with the damage running into hundreds of millions of pounds, say reports.
Russia says there were no weapons or crew on board the stealth corvette when fire erupted, however, other reports said three crew were injured, with Military.com reporting that two required hospitalisation.
The hull is said to be intact but the entire superstructure and decking must now be dismantled after its destruction in the inferno, say reports.
Related Post
A criminal probe has been launched into the major blaze on the Provornyy – designed to carry Russia’s deadly new Zircon – or Tskirkon – hypersonic missile.
The 6,670 mph weapon is seen as ‘unstoppable’ by current Western technology, and will initially be deployed on frigates but Putin said it would ‘definitely’ be used with Project 20385 corvettes like the blitzed Provornyy.
Huge flames and thick smoke were seen rising from the corvette Provornyy (Agile) at Severnaya Verf shipyard where it was under construction
Pictured: Smoke is shown rising over St Petersburg as fire engulfs a Russian warship under construction at a shipyard
The Gremyashchiy corvette – the first of this new type of corvette – was recently deployed to the Russian Pacific coast where it has been armed with Kalibr missiles.
The Russian government recently gave the go-ahead for full-scale production of Zircon missiles at a top-secret plant at Reutovo, near Moscow.
Late last month, Russia also revealed a ‘successful’ test of its the Zircon missile, fired from a warship in the White Sea.
The ‘unstoppable’ weapon hit a target some 250 miles away from the Admiral Gorshkov frigate, the Moscow defence ministry said on November 29.
Putin today awarded the Zircon’s creator, Boris Obnosov head of Tactical Missile Corporation, the Hero of Russia honour.
Damage from the fire on the warship has been put at around £225 million.
‘One of the main questions of the investigation is why it caught fire, given that a warship should be made of non-combustible materials,’ said a source.
The warship has been almost totally destroyed by the fire – the latest of a spate of mysterious blazes at top secret naval shipbuilding facilities – with the damage running into hundreds of millions of pounds, say reports. Pictured: The damage on the ship
A rendered image of Provornyy corvette. The part of the corvette highlighted in yellow is believed to have been destroyed by fire
In February a fire was extinguished on the Ural nuclear icebreaker at another plant, and in 2020 three workers were injured on the Ivan Papanin ship while under construction for the navy.
Among other naval fires, a blaze on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in 2019 caused an estimated £972 million in damages.
Fontanka media outlet said: ‘The stench from the major fire covered all of the Kirovsky district of the city.
‘It was rare case when taxpayers could literally sense their burning billions,’ it said. ‘This is the finale of regular fire emergencies at St Petersburg’s shipyards.’
Advertisement
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel
Source link
