Third frigate for Black Sea Fleet to be laid down in the fall

12.08.2011 Third Project 11356 frigate for Russia's Black Sea Fleet (BSF) will be laid down in the fall of 2011 at Yantar Shipyard (Kaliningrad), reported United Shipbuilding Corporation on Aug 11.

"It should be noted that first two frigates – Admiral Grigorovich and Admiral Essen – are supposed to join BSF late in 2013, and the third one which is to be keel-laid in autumn will be commissioned in 2014", said the release.

Project 11356 frigates are designed for antisurface/antisubmarine/antiaircraft warfare.

Main weapon of the frigates is antiship missile system Club-N with vertical launcher. The system consists of eight homing missiles 3M-54TE with high-explosive penetrating payload designed to hit sea surface targets at the range of 10-220 km.

To conduct fire at air and sea targets, the frigates are armed with multipurpose artillery system consisting of single-barreled gun mount A-190E and fire-direction system 5P-10E. A-190E performs 80 rounds per minute and is capable to hit targets at the range of up to 20 km. Fire-direction system 5P-10E Puma provides search, lock-on, and tracking of targets in automatic mode. The frigate is also equipped with Ka-27-class deck-based helicopter.

Earlier on, Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Vysotsky declared that till 2020 Black Sea Fleet would be replenished with 15 new surface combatants (Project 22350 frigates) and diesel submarines (Project 667 Lada).