Shipbuilding

Russia's Lada-class submarine project suffers further delays

The delivery of Russia's second and third Lada-class (Project 677) diesel-electric attack submarines will be delayed until 2019, according to Russian Navy and defence industry sources.

Admiralty Shipyard, which builds the submarines, has had its contract for the project changed as a result, the company's first deputy director general, Andrei Bystrov, stated.

A source in the Russian Navy Main Staff explained that the slowed construction of the second and third submarines was so that "due account [is] taken of the shortcomings revealed during the Northern Fleet's operation of the Project 677 lead ship, St Petersburg ". In addition, although the Russian Navy has planned for the class to be fitted with an air-independent propulsion plant (AIP), this will now not be the case as development of an AIP has been pushed back beyond 2020. "We have to wait until it [AIP] has passed its sea trials," the naval staff source said.