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Russia’s Black Sea Fleet forms crews for latest missile corvettes

The sailors will undergo general training and study technical means and shipboard equipment and armament

© Sergei Malgavko/TASS

MOSCOW, March 23. /TASS/. The Black Sea Fleet has formed the crews for the latest missile corvettes Graivoron and Tsiklon, the Fleet’s press office reported on Monday.

"The Black Sea Fleet has completed forming the crews for the small missile ships Graivoron and Tsiklon currently under construction at Shipyards. The crews are manned with officers and contract servicemen in the relevant military specialties," the press office said in a statement.

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The new warships’ crews have been dispatched to the Russian Navy’s training center in St. Petersburg. The sailors will undergo general training and study technical means and shipboard equipment and armament, which they will operate. After the training is over, the crews will go to the Shipyard to learn to operate the new ships and prepare for their acceptance for service, the statement says.

The small missile ship Graivoron is the Project Buyan-M eighth serial-produced ship. The same-type ships Vyshny Volochyok, Orekhovo-Zuyevo and Ingushetia are already operational in the Black Sea Fleet.

Project 21631 Buyan-M-class small missile ships are outfitted with the latest artillery, missile, anti-saboteur, air defense and radio-technical armament, including the most advanced Kalibr-NK precision missile system designated to strike naval and coastal targets. Buyan-M warships are designated to defend and protect the state’s economic zone.

Missile corvettes of this Project delivered strikes with Kalibr-NK cruise missiles against terrorist targets in Syria. Some Buyan-M corvettes are operational in Russia’s Mediterranean permanent taskforce on a rotating basis.

The small missile ship Tsiklon is the Karakurt-class warship. The Tsiklon will be the first ship of this type in Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. The other same-type warships are currently operational only in Russia’s Baltic Fleet.

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 displace about 800 tonnes and develop a speed of over 30 knots.

Karakurt-class corvettes are armed with Kalibr-NK cruise 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.

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