The Amur Shipyard has started the construction of two Karakurt-project small missile ships. They'll be used as mobile platforms capable of delivering fast strikes against both land-based and waterborne targets. The corvettes will be equipped with the Kalibr cruise missiles. After the construction is finished, the new ships will be adopted by the Pacific Fleet.
Our reporter Andrey Kolesnikov knows what makes them so unique.
Everybody was looking forward to this moment; both shipbuilders of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and sailors of the Pacific Fleet. It's the first time a Project-22800 small missile ship is being built in this facility. The Karakurts haven't yet sailed the eastern seas.
The new small missile ship is called the Karakurt (black widow). In nature, this predator is extremely fast and stealthy, capable of inflicting fatal damage with its bites on an enemy several times bigger than the spider. The new sea-zone multi-purpose missile ships are also rather small, only 220 feet long and 136 feet wide. They're equipped with the Kalibr high-precision weapon system, an automatic cannon, an AA-defense gun, advanced control, radio, navigation, and electronic warfare systems, as well as anti-sabotage weapons. The ship is capable of operating in stand-alone mode for two weeks.
The first small missile cruiser is already serving in the Baltic Sea. The second is going through its final trials. The new Karakurts will be finished on schedule after 2020.
Yuri Lysenkov, lead engineer: "The real progress is somewhat greater than what was planned. There's absolutely no doubt that next year, the Pacific Fleet will receive its ships".
The construction of two ships of the same class will later begin here, at the Amur Shipyard, as well as the shipyards of Vladivostok.
Igor Kovalyov, Deputy Commander of Pacific Fleet: "We expect them to have an increased range of potential target location. This is a small upgrade, a small advantage that'll perhaps become a standard feature of all surface warships built later".
The Pacific Fleet is going through a major overhaul. The Amur Shipyard is also building another two corvettes; one will be launched in August, the other will be launched in 2021. Moreover, the Zvezda shipyard in Bolshoi Kamen held a hand-over ceremony for the upgraded Omsk submarine. The formidable underwater cruiser is expected to join the parade formation of the Pacific Fleet in all of its glory on Navy Day. After that, it'll sail to Vilyuchinsk, Kamchatka.
Andrey Kolesnikov, Sergey Svistilnikov, Anton Gvozdetsky, and Vadim Telegin, VESTI, the Far Eastern Office.
