Russia to build five more Project 23130 logistic support tankers

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.

The new sea tanker Academician Pashin with improved technical characteristics entered service with the Northern Fleet’s logistics and rear support forces on Tuesday.

The solemn ceremony of hoisting the flag of the Russian Navy’s auxiliary fleet took place aboard the tanker at the Northern Fleet’s main naval base of Severomorsk with the participation of Fleet Commander Vice-Admiral Alexander Moiseyev.

The Project 23130 medium-sized sea-going supply tanker Academician Pashin has been built at the Nevsky Shipyard on order from Russia’s Defense Ministry. The tanker is equipped with a diesel single-shaft propulsion unit and a bow thruster and is an Arc4 ice-class vessel. The crew and passenger rooms and the service premises are located in the aft-end living superstructure.