KERCH, January 29. /TASS/. The patrol ship The Sergey Kotov of project 22160 has been set afloat at the Zaliv shipyard in Crimea.

The gala ceremony gathered a crowd of several hundred: Black Sea Fleet and Crimean officials, shipyard personnel and their families and delegates from the Gorky Zelenodolsk Plant.

"I recall 2014, when the plant’s director and I inspected the plant’s empty docks and workshops. Now the plant is becoming a shipbuilding center in southern Russia. It is very pleasant to see children here. May they take a look at the fruits of their parents’ work. I am certain that the ship will have a successful future. It cannot be otherwise, because you put your heart into it," the chief of the Russian Navy’s General Staff, the Navy’s First Deputy Commander-in-Chief Alexander Vitko said during the ceremony.

Ships of the project 22160 were designed by the Severnoye Design Bureau in St. Petersburg for protecting Russia’s marine economic zone and for escort, anti-piracy and search and rescue operations. They are capable of developing a speed of 30 knots. The patrol ships have a displacement of 1,300 tonnes, crew of 80 and endurance of 6,000 nautical miles. They are armed with a 57 mm artillery piece and an air defense system. Also, they can carry helicopters Ka-27PS.

The patrol ship The Sergey Kotov’s keel-laying ceremony took place on May 8, 2016. It is a fourth ship of this class and a third in the series. It was built at the Gorky Zelenodolsk Plant in cooperation with Kerch shipbuilders for the Black Sea Fleet. According to the Defense Ministry’s website, the ship was named in honor of Soviet naval officer, World War II participant, hero of the Soviet Union Sergey Kotov.