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Russian hi-tech firm to unveil concept of new corvette armed with 24 cruise missiles

"The new corvette is the next step in improving the performance characteristics of warships of this class, CEO of Russia’s Krylov State Research Center said

ST. PETERSBURG, June 28. /TASS/. Russia’s Krylov State Research Center has developed the conceptual design of a corvette that will be armed with 24 Kalibr anti-ship cruise missiles instead of eight missiles featured by its predecessors, Krylov Center CEO Vladimir Nikitin told TASS on Wednesday.

"The new corvette is the next step in improving the performance characteristics of warships of this class. Its development does not mean that Project 20380, 20385 and 20386 warships do not meet the requirements of the Russian Navy," the chief executive said.

"We have obtained purely practical proofs that small-displacement ships can be equipped with high-precision long-range weapons with conventional warheads and at the same time with a large number of cells of universal launchers. Now even such small warships can carry strategic weapons, which distinguishes modern corvettes from the ships of the last century that operated in the coastal waters," he said.

According to Nikitin, these projects of the corvette and the universal amphibious assault ship are the center’s advanced concepts it is developing on its own initiative. The center’s scientists and specialists have applied a new technology in creating the corvette’s body shape, which has allowed them to gain a big advantage in reducing resistance to motion. As the developers faced no task to increase the warship’s speed during its creation, the hull’s new shape enabled them to reduce the power of the propulsion plant and thus cut its size. This solution has helped increase the number of the universal launcher’s cells to accommodate up to 24 attack weapons instead of eight mounted on the Project 20385 corvette while keeping the warship’s similar size and displacement.

"The know-how is linked with the hull’s shape that halves the wave drag and cuts total resistance by a quarter at full speed. The figures have been confirmed by the results of trials in our experimental basins," the chief executive said.

The corvette will have a normal displacement of 1,980 tonnes, a full speed of 30 knots, a cruising range of 3,500-4,000 miles, an endurance of 15 days and a crew of 90 men. The warship will be equipped with a 31,600 horsepower main propulsion unit of the CODAG type and various vertical launchers for missile armament. The corvette’s concept envisages installing two four-tube 324mm torpedo launchers, a 100mm artillery system and two 30mm small-caliber antiaircraft artillery guns. On the customer’s request, the corvette can carry a helicopter.

A series of meetings held by Russian President Vladimir Putin with the heads of the Defense Ministry and the defense sector in Sochi in May made substantial adjustments to the draft state armament program for 2018-2025, Nikitin said.

"As follows from official statements, the construction of nuclear-powered and diesel-electric submarines, frigates, corvettes, minesweepers and support vessels is envisaged for the Navy. At the same time, the solution of the issues related to the timing of implementing the projects of combat surface ships of the ocean zone as the basis of a balanced Navy is also becoming more essential," he stressed.