Russia’s lead Project 11711 landing ship resumes state trials after engine fix

Russian Navy’s lead Project 11711 landing ship ‘Ivan Gren’ resumed state trials after undergoing necessary repairs, Kaliningrad-based shipbuilder Yantar informed on Wednesday.

The Russian Navy aborted its trials for the landing ship in December last year after it had been discovered that the ship was not able to run astern.

The shipbuilder said the “technical issues” were now resolved adding that the landing ship was expected to complete the tests by mid-April.

Another issue reported in the media was the ship’s poor navigability which was reportedly caused by too many changes during the construction process. Yantar Shipyard did not say whether this issue was addressed during rectification works.

Ivan Gren is the lead ship of a new class of Russian Navy landing ships built to replace the old Project 1171 Alligator-class LSTs. Overall six ships in the class were planned for construction but the number was later reduced to just two ships.

The second ship in the class, Peter Morgunov, started construction in 2015 and is to be delivered by the end of 2018, according to the shipbuilder.

Project 11711 ships displace between 5,000 and 6,000 tons, and carry up to 13 main battle tanks or 36 armored personnel carriers.