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Photo: Western Military District Press Service.
Russian Navy postponed commissioning of the stealth corvette Boiky for indefinite term due to failed delivery of 100-mm gun system A-190 Universal, reports Izvestiya referring to Russian Navy Main HQ.
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Russian Stealth Corvette Remains Unarmed
26.11.2012
According to a source, Project 20380 corvette Boiky is passing shipyard's sea trials without gun. "That's not trials at all", complained the staff officer.
Besides, gun mount A-190 produced by Arsenal design bureau is by no means as good as it is declared, said the Navy spokesman. According to him, naval mariners try not to use Universal gun mounts mounted on Russian corvettes.
"Fire rate of the gun declared by the manufacturer as 80 rounds per minute has not been tested. If you fire at nominal mode, the gun will be stuck after third or four round. Either the case will skew or elevators will come loose. There are problems in loading system. New defects every time. So, we have to conduct only single-shot fire. The system was poorly designed and even worse manufactured", reports Izvestiya citing the officer.
According to a representative of United Shipbuilding Corporation, gun mounts A-190 Universal also displayed bad performance on Indian frigates INS Talwar, INS Trishul, and INS Tabar built in Russia.
The Arsenal design bureau shifts the blame to the project developer, i.e. the Burevestnik research institute. United Shipbuilding Corporation decided, however, to relegate production of A-190 back to the Burevestnik institute. A spokesman for the Arsenal bureau described that decision as a weird step as his company had managed to eliminate most of the gun's defects.
Ship-based gun mount A-190 was developed early in 2000's on the basis of 76-mm gun AK-176. Its weight is about 15 tons; firing rate is up to 80 rounds per minute; destruction range is 21 km. The gun can be mounted on ships displacing more than 500 tons including frigates, corvettes and patrol craft.
Built under stealth technology, corvette Boiky was laid down in 2005 being supposed to join Russian Navy in 2012.
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