Keel-Laying Date of Fourth Frigate for Russian Navy Still Undefined

27.11.2012 Exact date of the keel-laying ceremony of another frigate for Russian Navy has not been set so far, a source in shipbuilding industry told Central Navy Portal.

The question is frigate Admiral Butakov (serial number 01360), third batch-produced Project 11356 ship. Initially, the solemn ceremony was set on the day of visit of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to Kaliningrad on Oct 17. Although Medvedev was invited to the keel-laying ceremony, he could not attend it due to tight schedule of the visit. As a result, the hull section of the new frigate, a rostrum and festive banners were taken away.

New date of the frigate's keel laying has not been appointed so far. "It can be said with confidence that the ship will be laid down in December", a source in United Shipbuilding Corporation told Central Navy Portal. "State defense order does provide keel laying of the fourth frigate in this year", added the interviewee.

Recall that Yantar shipyard started construction of the 3-ship series (planned to be supplemented by other three Project 11356 frigates) in Dec 2010 with keel laying of the lead frigate Admiral Grigorovich (serial number 01357). In July 2011, the next frigate was laid down, Admiral Essen (serial number 01358), and in Feb 2012 – Admiral Makarov (serial number 01359).

At present, all three frigates are being actively built. The lead ship is going to be launched early in 2013, pass all trials through the summer and the fall and join Russian Navy by the end of the next year.

Construction of these ships for Russia is going on alongside with executing of the Indian Navy's order. First two frigates, INS Teg and INS Tarkash, have been already delivered to the client. The third frigate, INS Trikand is being outfitted afloat and will be delivered in the summer of 2013. It was recently reported that Indian Navy was planning to order other three frigates of this class.