Solemn send-off of the recruits of the first naval research company was held at St. Petersburg's city assembly point. Conscripts will serve in Pushkin town’s cantonment, where VUNTS Navy "Naval Academy" Research Institute (of Operational and Strategic Studies of Naval Construction) and the Naval Polytechnic Institute are based. That is where the recruits, - 30 people in total, - will engage in scientific researches. Up to 8 candidates competed for one position in the research company.  Recruits will conduct researches in the fields of hydroacoustics, information technology, automated control and marine robotic systems.

      "As you can see, the range of studies is very wide, so that virtually all candidates graduated from engineering and even other universities of St. Petersburg can stay in demand in this kind of research companies," rear admiral Alexander Karpov, Deputy Chief of VUNTS Navy for Research and Academic Affairs said. After one- year service, recruits, if they wish, will be able to continue serving under contract.

      The N.G. Kuznetsov Naval Academy located in Saint Petersburg is the only academy of the Russian Navy. In 1827 Admiral Ivan Kruzenshtern initiated an Officers' Class at the Naval Cadet Corps. In 1862 the Class was reorganized into an Academic Course of Maritime Science. In 1877, to mark its fiftieth anniversary, the Class was renamed the Nikolaev Maritime Academy (Nikolayevskaya Morskaya Akademiya) and in 1910 was completely detached from the Naval Cadet Corps. The Academy's last pre-revolutionary class was in 1913. Toward the end of the Soviet era the Academy was named the A.A. Grechko Naval Academy and finally was renamed the N.G. Kuznetsov Naval Academy.