Russia to send for repairs large landing ship which broke down en route to Syria
The “Orsk”, an Alligator-class large landing ship in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, will be sent for repairs because the propulsion system broke down, TASS reports, citing a source in the Crimean authorities.
According to the information obtained by the news agency, one of the ship’s two diesel engines broke down while it was en route to Syria. The landing ship was towed by the sea tug MB-304 to the Black Sea Fleet base. It is not yet known where the repairs will be carried out or how long they will take, since everything depends on the availability of spare parts and their manufacturing times.
The Orsk finished undergoing planned maintenance at the end of October 2017 at the Black Sea Fleet’s 13th ship repair yard in Sevastopol. The ship was part of the Syrian Express, transporting cargo to Syria. It was on large landing ships such as the Orsk that Russia transported most of the cargo used to support its military groups in Syria.
The Orsk is part of the landing ship brigade of Russia’s naval base in Crimea. It has a displacement of 4,600 tons, a range of 10,000 nautical miles, and can transport up to 1,500 tons of equipment and cargo.
The ship was built at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad on August 30, 1967. It was commissioned on December 31, 1968, and became part of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.