Sensing Russia’s hunger for advanced naval warships and hardware, France rolled out its latest and most high tech naval warship in St. Petersburg in the hopes of alluring the Russian navy into buying the naval amphibious assault platform. The Mistral of the French navy weighs about 23,700-tons and can accommodate about a dozen helicopters and transport numerous soldiers for land based operations.

Russia had witnessed a great down fall in the its naval capabilities after the fall of the Soviet Union and has been in desperate need of a naval platform that would provide the country with the amphibious capabilities it has longed sought for. Recently, Moscow had announced its willingness to get into a first of its kind arms deal with a NATO member country.

However, this latest move has sent wave of concern into the neighboring countries such as Georgia and other ex-Soviet breakaways republics, who are concerned about a more powerful Russia and its impact in the region. The Russian Navy has stated that, the Mistral could prove to be of immense importance for Russia, as the warship would provide the necessary amphibious capabilities that Russia needs for its troops.

Citing the example of the Georgian War in the month of August in 2008, the head of the Russian Navy stated that, it took more than 26 hours for the Black Fleet warships to land its troops in the war zone, where as a vessel such as The Mistral would have accomplished the same task in 40 minutes.

Via Associated Press.