New Helicopter Aircraft Tender

Scope Russia will begin building two helicopters carriers as of May 2020. And in a slap at the West the ships will be built in a shipyard in the Crimea forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014 which led to Western sanctions against Russia. Two amphibious assault ships with water displacement of up to 15000 tons will for the first time in Russian history be laid down at the Zaliv shipyard in Kerch in 2020. The ships will be able to carry over 10 helicopters of various types and will be equipped with a dock-type chamber for landing craft utilities LTU. The U.S. Navy operates eight Wasp-class amphibious assault ships each about 41000 tons. They carry almost 2000 Marines plus up to a dozen landing craft 30 M-1 tanks and AAV7A1 amphibious armored vehicles eight towed 155-millimeter howitzers and almost a hundred trucks Humvees and other support vehicles. That ground force is supported by a powerful mixed air unit comprising about 20 to 30 transport and attack helicopters MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft AV-8B Harrier jets and F-35B short-takeoff and vertical landing STOVL stealth fighters. The first vessel is slated to be delivered before Russias current 10-year arms procurement plan ends at the end of 2027.