A new Russian stealth warship has suffered £225million worth of damage after it caught fire during construction.
Kremlin’s plans to modernize the navy have suffered a setback due to Friday’s firestorm in St Petersburg.
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. Photo: Still taken from the footage of St Petersburg’s fire.
The Kremlin’s efforts to modernize its navy has been severely hampered by the scale of Friday’s blaze in St Petersburg.
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
At the Severnaya Verf shipyard, huge flames and dense smoke could be seen rising from Provornyyy (Agile), the corvette.
According to reports, the warship was almost completely destroyed in the fire. This is the latest incident of an ongoing series of mysterious fires at naval shipbuilding facilities.
Russia insists that there was no crew or weapons aboard the stealth corvette during fire. However, Military.com reports that at least three crew members were in danger.
According to reports, the hull appears intact. However, the superstructure and decking need to be removed after it was destroyed in the fire.
An investigation has been initiated into the Provornyy firestorm that was caused by Russia’s new Zircon (or Tskirkon) hypersonic missile.
While the 6,670 mph weapon will initially be deployed to frigates, Putin indicated that it would definitely’ be used in conjunction with Project 20385 Corvettes such as Provornyy.
The corvette Provornyy, also known as Agile (or Provornyy), was seen rising at the Severnaya Verf Shipyard.
Picture: A Russian warship is being built at a shipyard as smoke rises above St Petersburg.
Gremyashchiy’s corvette, the first type of the new Gremyashchiy Corvette, was deployed recently to the Russian Pacific Coast where it was armed with Kalibr missiles.
Recently, the Russian government gave its approval for full production at Reutovo (near Moscow) of Zircon missiles.
Late last month, Russia also revealed a ‘successful’ test of its the Zircon missile, fired from a warship in the White Sea.
Moscow defense ministry stated that the ‘unstoppable weapon’ hit an area 250 miles from Admiral Gorshkov’s frigate.
Putin gave today the Hero of Russia award to Boris Obnosov (head of Tactical Missile Corporation), for his creation of the Zircon.
Damage from the fire on the warship has been put at around £225 million.
Sources said that one of the major questions in the investigation was why the ship caught on fire.
According to reports, the warship was almost completely destroyed in the fire. This is the latest incident of mysterious blazes at naval shipbuilding facilities. Image: Ship damage
An image rendered of the Provornyy Corvette. It is thought that the yellow-colored part of Provornyy corvette was destroyed by fire.
Two fires were put out at the Ural nuclear submarine icebreaker, in February. Three workers sustained injuries on Ivan Papanin’s ship under construction by the Navy.
Among other naval fires, a blaze on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov in 2019 caused an estimated £972 million in damages.
Fontanka reported that the smoke from the main fire covered every square inch of the Kirovsky District.
According to the report, it stated, “It was an uncommon case where taxpayers could literally smell their burning billions.” This is the final of regular fire emergencies at St Petersburg shipyards.