Defense Ministry Delays Completion of Two Newest Corvettes

15.11.2012 Construction of two newest Project 20380 corvettes Sovershenny and Gromky is being delayed because Russian defense ministry still has not agreed upon the price with the Amur Shipyard, said director general and chief designer of the Almaz Design Bureau Alexander Shlyakhtenko during presentation of the book "Corvettes: Conceptual Design" held on Nov 14 at Severnaya Verf shipyard on occasion of its centenary.

According to Shlyakhtenko, there are neither designing nor technological reasons for delay of the ships' construction.

Both corvettes will serve at Pacific Fleet (PF). Corvette Gromky (laid down in Apr 2012) is to be commissioned in 2015, and Sovershenny is supposed to join the Navy even in 2013. Reportedly, large-size non-metal tophamper sections for Sovershenny had been delivered from St. Petersburg to Komsomolsk-on-Amur in Oct 2012.

Project 20380 corvette is designed for littoral zone naval operations like antiship and antisubmarine warfare, air defenses, and gun support of landing parties. Hull design is built under radically new principles. For the first time in Soviet/Russian shipbuilding, ships of this size are equipped with stern-based helicopter hangar and heliport. Basic weapon is Uran antiship missile system.