Ukraine laid down first corvette

18.05.2011 Keel-laying ceremony of the first Project 58250 corvette was held at Chernomorsky Shipyard (Nikolayev, Ukraine), reports New Sevastopol. Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich took part in the ceremony. As is expected, first corvette will be delivered to Ukrainian Navy in 2016; the military will receive other three such ships till 2021. In total, Ukrainian Navy is to acquire ten Project 58250 corvettes.

The ship is being built under the contract tied with Chernomorsky Shipyard in Dec 2009. The project financing has been questionable for a long time. Appropriation of required funds is provided by the concept of state purpose-oriented defense program. Ukrainian defense minister Mikhail Yezhel earlier said that overall financing of the corvette building program would make UAH 16.22 bln ($2.04 bln).

Displacement of Ukrainian corvette will be 2,500 tons; length – 112 meters; beam – 10.1 meters; draft – 5.6 meters. Supposedly, the ship will have max speed of 32 knots, and fuel range – 4,000 nautical miles. Information on the ship's armament has not been disclosed so far. Late in March 2011 Yezhel proposed to build the corvette on sponsors' money, since the program faces serious lack of financing.