MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/. The Baltic Fleet will receive a batch of six Project 22800 missile corvettes, armed with the Kalibr cruise missiles; four of them will also be armed with the Pantsir-M close-in weapon systems, which will soon undergo testing on the Odintsovo corvette, Russian Navy Commander Admiral Nikolay Yevmenov announced Monday.
"Soon, the surface part of the Baltic Fleet will be reinforced with a batch of six Project 22800 missile corvettes. Four of them will carry a naval version of the Pantsir system. Odintsovo will become the first one, the Pantsir system will undergo testing on this ship," the Commander’s congratulatory telegram to the sailors, dedicated to the Fleet’s 317th anniversary, says, according to the Fleet press service.
The Odintsovo corvette was initially laid down under Shkval name at the Saint Petersburg’s Pella shipyard on July 29, 2016; it was commissioned on May 5, 2018. The corvette is the first ship to be equipped with the naval version of the Pantsir system.
The Project 22800 corvettes are equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, modern control, radio, navigation, electronic warfare systems, counter-diversion armaments, man-portable air-defense systems. The ships are designed to act either as part of naval groups or on their own.