MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. The Amur Shipyard in the Russian Far East will launch the construction of a new series of Project 20380 and Project 20385 corvettes for the Navy in 2021, a source in the shipbuilding industry told TASS on Wednesday.
"The first ships out of six corvettes stipulated by the contract will be laid down already in 2021. The contract is expected to be fulfilled in 2028," the source said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on December 15 that it had concluded a contract with the Amur Shipyard on building two Project 20380 and four Project 20385 corvettes due to enter service with the Pacific Fleet in 2024-2028.
The Project 20380 and Project 20385 corvettes will enable the Russian Navy to boost the efficiency of detecting and eliminating enemy submarines, surface ships and vessels and protect naval bases, the coastline and sea lanes, the ministry said in a statement.
The corvettes under construction in Russia today are unrivaled in the world by some operational characteristics and armament and have vast upgrade potential. These are advanced warships outfitted with the latest multi-functional radars, Redut surface-to-air missile systems and Uran anti-ship missile launchers (Project 20380), Paket-NK anti-submarine warfare complexes and the universal shipborne launchers (Project 20385) for Kalibr-NK cruise missiles and eventually for Tsirkon hypersonic missiles.
Project 20380 and Project 20385 corvettes are being built by the Severnaya Shipyard in St. Petersburg and the Amur Shipyard in the Far East. As of today, six warships of this type are operational in the Russian Navy and the same number of these corvettes is at various stages of construction, including vessels of the improved Project 20386. The corvette Aldar Tsydenzhapov built by the Amur Shipyard is undergoing state trials.