ST. PETERSBURG, July 1. /TASS/. Russia’s first new class corvette of Project 22800 for the naval forces will be laid down by the end of the current year, and the Navy will get a total of 18 such ships, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy Admiral Viktor Chirkov said on Wednesday.
"To keep the pace of ship construction, we’ll replace, for example, [Project] 11356 by building a new series of vessels - small missile ships, corvettes armed with cruise missiles - [Project] 22800. This work is being done today, and we hope that by the end of the year we’ll be able to lay down the first ship," Chirkov said at the St. Petersburg International Maritime Defence Show (IMDS-2015).
"The ship’s design is to be completed by the end of the month," Admiral Chirkov said, adding that the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau is engaged in the project.
According to him, the new ships will be built in large series - 18 vessels as a minimum.
According to Chirkov, certain parameters of the new corvettes are already known, although the designing is not over yet. In particular, ships of Project 22800 will be equipped with Russian propulsion plants, their operating range will reach 1,000 miles and sea endurance - 30 days. They will have improved seaworthiness characteristics.
In April, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Yuri Borisov announced plans of the military to order small ocean-going class of corvettes. "We will now be working on and placing contracts for smaller corvettes," Borisov said then. Chirkov also said then that the yet-to-be ordered ships would carry the same weapons as smaller missile ships. "They will be slightly different in terms of their sea worthiness parameters," Chirkov said. Speaking of the prospects for building missile ships he said that "as many as necessary for maintaining the nation’s defence will be available." "The development proceeds towards universal long-range missiles, capable of being used against coastal and surface targets," he said.
The frame of the ninth Project 21631 (Buyan-M) vessel was laid at the Zelenodolsk shipyard in Tatarstan on April 10. This is the last ship in the series ordered by the Defence Ministry. The ships of Project 21631 (Buyan-M) are multi-purpose river-sea vessels. The universal missile complex Kalibr-NK is the main weapon on board. At the moment there are three ships of this class in service - The Grad Sviyazhsk, The Uglich and The Veliki Ustyug. All are part of the Caspian Flotilla. Two more ships - The Zelyony Dol and The Serpukhov - will be delivered to the military this year.
The Seventh International Maritime Defence Show (IMDS-2015) is held St. Petersburg from July 1 to 5, 2015. The IMDS-2015 organiser is the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade. The exhibition is held with participation of the Russian Defence Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, the Government of St. Petersburg and OJSC Rosoboronexport arms exporting company. The Exhibition Operator is Morskoy Salon JSC.