Russia to buy frigates from China

In a remarkable turnabout, Moscow is going to purchase specially modified naval frigates from Beijing, the result of Russia’s declining ability to produce ships at home and its inability to buy them in the West because of sanctions and China’s growing arms production especially in the naval sector.

Profi-Forex’s Elena Tarakanova reports on this remarkable turnaround.

“Already a long time ago, the Russian state in fact lost the ability to produce major vessels,” she says, and had to purchase them abroad, first from the West and now from China, which only became a naval power recently.

At the Moscow arms show ten days ago, China showed off drawings for four universal descent vessels with displacements of 40,000 tons, exactly the kind of ship Russian military planners are now focusing on to defend their coastal areas [and annexed Crimea – Ed.] and to project power in Russia’s neighborhood [such as in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov in its war against Ukraine – Ed.]

Chinese media outlets have since reported that Russia plans to purchase a variety of weapons from China in the near future, adding that

it is especially interested in the new Chinese frigates which recall the French Mistrals which Russia purchased but was not able to take delivery of because of sanctions.

The Chinese shipbuilder involved has designated the model the 054AE, with the letter E referring to Russia in Chinese (Éluósī), thus indicating that China is ready, willing and able to modify its frigate to meet Russian requirements and to offer Moscow the equivalent of the Mistral for its future needs.

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