Russia Confirms Order for French Mistral Warships

On Friday Russia’s President, Dmitry Medvedev confirmed the country’s order for two French Mistral-class helicopter carriers.

The order, priced at $1.3 billion is Russia’s largest foreign arms purchase in several decades.

The assault ships are designed to carry as many as 16 heavy helicopters or 35 light helicopters, dozens of tanks and armored vehicles and hold up to 450 troops for up to six months and as many as 700 troops for shorter periods of time. They are built to attack land from the sea.

Russia has said the ships will play an important role in the defense of the Kuril Islands, whose ownership is disputed with Japan.

French companies DCNS and STX along with Russia’s state operated United Shipbuilding Corporation will build the vessels at France’s Saint-Nazaire docks for a price of $656 million each. Russia is scheduled to make an advance payment in January; once that it done, work will begin and the first ship could be completed in as little as 36 months.

According to a statement from French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, the project will create 1,000 jobs for the consortium, most of which will be in Saint-Nazaire.

United Shipbuilding will share in 20 percent of the building of the two initial ships, and two expected additional mistral vessels may be built in Russia.

NATO has long opposed the deal, with ex-Soviet countries showing concern over western technology being shared with Russia. Following their brief war with Russia in 2008, Georgia has especially opposed the deal between Russia and France, seeing the new ships as a direct threat. In cables released by WikiLeaks, U.S. ambassador to Georgia, John R. Bass, recommended that the U.S. protest the deal, citing fears of greater conflict in the region as a result.