MOSCOW (Sputnik) – A high-level source in the Northern Fleet said earlier that the carrier’s crew kicked off preparations for assignment to the Mediterranean slated for sometime this fall.
"The aircraft carrier has now arrived at the 35th shipyard [a Murmansk subsidiary of the Arkhangelsk Region-based Zvezdochka] to undergo the second phase of upgrades and the recovery of its technical readiness. Work should be completed before the end of September, after which the ship will be seaworthy," the source said.
The two-phase approach was devised to allow pilots work out takeoff and landing aboard the MiG-29K/KUB fighters, designated to become the carrier air wing, over the summer.
The Admiral Kuznetsov is Russia’s only aircraft-carrying cruiser, sometimes designated by the West as an aircraft carrier, commissioned into the Russian Navy on December 25, 1990.
