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Russian Navy’s new missile corvettes surpass customer’s expectations, says source

The results of new ships’ operation are used to generalize experience and introduce innovations into serial ships of these Projects under construction

ST. PETERSBURG, June 21. /TASS/. The Russian Navy’s Project 22800 ‘Karakurt’ and Project 21631 ‘Buyan-M’ new missile corvettes have surpassed the customer’s expectations over the period of their use, a source in the defense industry told TASS on Friday.

"The [new] small-displacement ships have performed better than expected… This relates to small missile ships. Their design characteristics were already excellent but in practice they surpassed them by seaworthiness, the use of weapons and their operability," the source said, noting that the conclusions stemmed from the experience of using new missile corvettes in the fight against terrorists in Syria and from their operation in distant waters.

The results of new ships’ operation are used to generalize experience and introduce innovations into serial ships of these Projects under construction, the source added.

Project 22800 Karakurt-class missile corvettes are a Russian series of green-water multipurpose missile/artillery warships. The corvettes of this class developed by specialists of the St. Petersburg-based Almaz Central Design Bureau for Marine Engineering (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation) displace about 800 tonnes and develop a speed of over 30 knots.

Karakurt-class corvettes are armed with Kalibr and (or) Oniks missiles, and also with the modernized AK-176MA 76.2mm artillery system. The corvettes’ endurance is 15 days.

Overall, the shipbuilders are planning to build 18 warships of this Project for the Russian Navy.

Project 21631 ships are armed with Kalibr cruise missiles stored in the 3S-14 eight-cell vertical launcher. The Kalibr system delivers strikes by cruise missiles against naval and ground targets, using 3M-54 and 3M-14 missiles, respectively. The corvettes are also armed with the A-190 100mm artillery system and the AK-630-2 ‘Duet’ small-caliber air defense artillery complex. The ships of this Project also carry 3M-47 ‘Gibka’ launchers.

Project 21631 small missile corvettes are 75 meters long, displace 949 tonnes and develop a speed of 25 knots. Their sea endurance is 10 days and they operate at a distance of up to 2,500 miles. They have a crew of 52.