Russian Black Sea Fleet to receive 16 ships, support vessels in 2020

MOSCOW, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Black Sea Fleet will receive 16 ships and support vessels next year, Igor Osipov, the fleet's commander, said in a statement published on the Defense Ministry's website Friday.

Osipov said that this year the fleet received five newest vessels including a patrol ship, a minesweeper and three landing boats.

In addition, the auxiliary fleet was replenished with four new support vessels, including sea and raid tugs, a rescue tugboat and a self-propelled floating crane, he said.

Osipov said that the testing of newest corvette "Ingushetia" equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles is at its final stage, and the ship is expected to become part of the Black Sea Fleet in the final ten days of December.