2 months after the lethal fire occurred onboard of Russian Aircraft Carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, the question concerning the cost of the incident starts to show up at Russian media. Officials haven’t made an explanation about the estimated cost of damage yet. However, Alexei Rakhmanov, head of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), said in a statement that the exact amount of damage to the only Russian aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” due to the fire has not been determined, but it will probably exceed 300 million rubles ($4.7 million).
“No, there is no final figure. The commission continues to work. Considering that the work of both firefighters and law enforcement agencies has tightened up, I think that we still need some time to reconcile. We simply were not allowed to enter the facility for a very long time,” Rakhmanov told reporters on Thursday.
“I’ll tentatively neither scare nor delight anyone – there are definitely no 90 billion there. But I also think that we will not get off with 300 million,” said the USC president.
On December 12, 2019, a fire broke out on the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov, which was put in for repair at a plant in Murmansk. According to preliminary data, a fire arose during welding. He was put out in a day. As a result of the fire, two people died – a contract soldier who participated in the fire extinguishing, and an officer of the Northern Fleet.
Completed in the early 1990s, the Russian carrier is being renovated under an April 2018 contract. The ship was damaged in late October 2018 while floating out of the PD-50 dry dock at Roslyakovo. Kuznetsov was initially set to be finished in 2021, but the date has slipped to 2022.
During the modernization, Admiral Kuznetsov will receive a marine version of the Pantsir air defense complex, new boilers, pumps and new flight and communication systems. The ship will have additional repairs of the main turbines of the power plant.
