According to information released by the Russian press agency TASS, the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy is to receive two latest Karakurt-class corvettes of project 22800 armed with Pantsir-M air defense this year, the Izvestia daily writes quoting Russian Defense Ministry sources.
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Project 22800 Karakurt-class small missile vessel (Corvette) Uragan, first ship of the class (Picture Source: Russianarms)
Crews for the new corvettes have been formed. Both warships will operate in the 41st brigade of missile ships. They are to join the fleet by the end of the year, however, the time may be postponed.
The sources said the Tsiklon and the Askold corvettes are built by Zaliv Shipyard in Kerch. The Tsiklon was floated a year ago and is undergoing trials. The Askold is at the final construction stage.
The Black Sea fleet will get upgraded project 22800 corvettes armed with better weapons than predecessors. In particular, they carry Pantsir-M air defense launcher. The corvettes can fire Kalibr and Onyx missiles. The body of the warships is made with stealth technologies.
“Project 22800 corvettes carry eight cruise missiles each. Kalibr can strike at coastal and sea targets,” expert Dmitry Boltenkov said. “The corvettes will reinforce the 41st brigade of missile ships, which is important, as NATO warships regularly sail close to Crimea. The corvettes were built by Zaliv Shipyard in Crimea, which stood idle for a long time,” he added.
NATO has been actively developing military infrastructure in the Black Sea area. “Project 22800 warships can strike at NATO forces in the southeastern flank, where the Americans are building missile defense objects,” Boltenkov said.
The Navy currently operates three project 22800 corvettes — the Mytishchi, the Sovetsk, and the Odintsovo. They all operate in the Baltic fleet. A total of 18 corvettes are to be built and equally shared by the Pacific, Baltic and Black Sea fleets. Before 2018, the corvettes were named after natural phenomena: Hurricane, Typhoon, Storm. It was then decided to name them after Russian small towns.
The Project 22800 also called Karakurt-Class is a new generation of guided-missile corvettes designed and built for the Russian Navy. Russian Navy plans to deliver 18 corvettes Black Sea Fleet and Northern Fleet by 2022. The superstructure of the new corvette is based on stealth technology and using a modular design for the development of different variants according to mission requirements.
The Karakurt-class corvette is powered by a combined diesel and gas system that includes three M-507D-1 diesel engines and three DGAS-315 diesel generators. The ship can reach a top speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) with a maximum cruising range of 2,500 nmi (4,600 km; 2,900 mi) and an endurance of 15 days.
The Karakurt-class corvette is armed with one 76.2 mm 59-caliber AK-176MA or 100 mm A-190 automatic dual-purpose naval guns, one Pantsir-M CIWS with Hermes-K missiles or 1 × 3M89 Palash/ Palma CIWS with Sosna-R missiles (4+4 SAM in total 8 plus under reload units) or two AK-630M-2 CIWS (on first 2 vessels), eight UKSK VLS (Vertical Launching Systems) cells for Kalibr or Oniks anti-ship cruise missiles and two 14.5 mm MTPU machineguns.
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