Project 23900 Ivan Rogov is Russia’s newest class of amphibious assault ships.Project 23900 Ivan Rogov is Russia’s newest class of amphibious assault ships.
After the failure of the contract with the French Mistral class, it is clear that the Russian Navy has a gap in its aircraft carrying capacity, especially in the context of the aging Kuznetsov. Project 23900 Ivan Rogov is Russia’s newest class of amphibious assault ships. The program will include a pair of “Universal Landing Ships” that were signed in May 2020 and the vessels were officially unveiled in July of that year as “Ivan Rogov” and “Mitrofan Moskalenko”.
Project 23900 are planned amphibious assault ships with a displacement of 40,000 tons. They are essentially comparable to Western helicopter destroyers. Based on images showed to Vladimir Putin at January 2020 exposition devoted to the future for the Russian Navy, the two Project 23900 ships ordered for the Russian Navy appear to be a design derivative from the French Mistral class, having similar architecture and dimensions.
The design of the project includes a through-deck arrangement with the long island superstructure set to the starboard side. The ship will have a length of 220 m, a beam of 38 m, and a draft of 7.5 m. Eight landing and take-off areas will be featured with seven lined to port and a single area at the starboard-stern corner. At least two hangar elevators will provide access to decks below and vice versa.
The versatile amphibious assault ship can carry a group of heavy helicopters, armored vehicles and transport up to 1,000 Marines or even more. It has a dock for landing boats. Images published by Business Online show Ka-27 and Ka-52K helicopters on the deck of project 23900 ships. It is highly likely that the ships will be armed with Pantsir-M air defense guns and rotating Paket-NK SM-588 launchers with 324mm antitorpedoes.
The two universal amphibious assault ships of project 23900 will cost close to 100 bln rubles. The lead ship is to be handed over to the Navy in 2026 and the second one on 2027. However, the biggest challenge for Russia in completing this class of warships is the capacity of the shipbuilding industry as well as the production of suitable engines.
