On April 26, 2019, Rosoboronexport’s Director General Alexander Mikheev visited the Yantar Baltic Shipyard in Kaliningrad.
The company’s head met with Governor Anton Alikhanov, Yantar’s CEO Eduard Yefimov, and a delegation of India’s Ministry of Defense, led by Defense Secretary Sanjay Mitra.
The agenda of the working meeting with the Governor of Kaliningrad was dominated by the footprint of the region in Russia’s military and technical cooperation with foreign states and ways for ratcheting up the volume of exported products, originated in the area.
“Rosoboronexport sees enormous potential in Yantar for developing and manufacturing hi-tech products suitable for the military and technical export program. Having already produced equipment, slated for export, worth a total of more than $1 bln, the enterprise has taken up implementing one of the largest contracts in the interest of India’s Navy. Yantar boasts expertise in construction of most of the major types of Russia’s ships. Besides, the facility is gearing up to kick off the construction of two Ivan Gren-class big landing ships. Though these two will end up in the Russian Navy, the demand is high for the class on the world market as well,” said Alexander Mikheev.
Other issues on the agenda included Yantar's backlog. April 23, 2019 witnessed the announcement of President Vladimir Putin about the construction of two big landing ships to gain traction at the shipyard shortly. Rosoboronexport’s Director General noted that given Yantar's production capacity, this experience would come in handy for construction of ships of this class for export.
“That Kaliningrad’s enterprises are ready to take up large orders for modern hi-tech products speaks volumes about the potential of the region. Yet we have room for growth and discerns further reference points for development, most of them being in the defense domain. I cannot be happier that the region is entrusted to carry out crucial contracts both in the State Arms Acquisition Program and for Rosoboronexport,” said Anton Alikhanov.
A key military and technical cooperation project apace in Kaliningrad is the construction of Project 11356 frigates for India’s Navy under a contract signed with Rosoboronexport. Concurrently Yantar's staff is engaged in assisting Goa Shipyard Ltd in building similar ships in India. Preparations for implementation of the contract became one of the issues on the agenda. It is noteworthy that these are not the first Project 11356 frigates, manufactured by the shipyard for India.
On its tour of Yantar, the Indian delegation visited production shops and inspected the hulls of the future frigates. Having been shown technologies adopted at the shipyard, the Indian partners stressed that Russia take every effort to meet all its obligations.
