Ukraine Resumes Corvette Construction

07.11.2011 Reportedly, Ukrainian government considers amended draft program of new corvette for the national navy.

Ukraine plans to resume implementation of the corvette building program in 2012; it was suspended in 2010 due to financial problems, reports Interfax-Ukraine referring to an informed military source.

According to the source, the amended draft program is presently under governmental consideration and is expected to be approved in the current year. "The amendments primarily deal with the project executors, some things will be done in Ukraine. But all foreign partners remain the same", he said.

Financial issue has been settled as well, added the interviewee. "UAH 433.6 mln provided by state budget 2012 for the corvette program has been preserved", he said.

Alongside with that, he stressed the need to speed up construction in order to avoid the project obsolescence. "If we resume the program in 2012, the moral aging problem is not topical. But we'll face it in 2015 – third ship will a bit differ from the first two", he said.

In Dec 2009 Ukrainian defense ministry and Chernomorsky Shipyard (Nikolayev) tied a contract upon results of the governmental tender for corvettes. Shipbuilding Research and Design Center (Nikolayev) was selected the project developer.

The ship is supposed to operate in the Black and the Mediterranean seas; her endurance will be 30 days, displacement is 2,500 tons. Leading European arms manufacturers like DCNS, MBDA, and EuroTorp will deliver weapons for the Ukraine's ambitious project. Commissioning of the lead ship is scheduled in 2016. It is planned to build 4 corvettes till 2021.

According to the corvette construction program approved by Ukrainian government in March 2011, overall amount of program financing till 2021 will be about UAH 16.22 bln.