These Little Russian Corvettes Will Turn the Black Sea Into a Fortress (Sputnik)

[Purveyor]

The Black Sea Fleet is expected to receive a batch of five new Project 22800 'Karakut' ('Black Widow') warships, classified as both 'small missile ships' and 'small corvettes'. Commenting on the prospects for the new vessels, military journalist Boris Stepnov suggested that the new ships will allow the Navy to turn the Black Sea into a fortress.

The Zelenodolsk Plant shipyard has received another order, this time for five small multipurpose Project 22800 missile ships. The next-generation vessel has a displacement of 800 tons, is 65 meters long, 10 meters wide, and has a draught of 4 meters. The vessels have maximum speed of 30 knots, a cruising range of up to 2,500 nautical miles, and can stay at sea for up to 15 days at a time.

By all indications, the new vessels will be assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. The first of them will be handed over to the Navy in 2018, the last in 2021. The ships, equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, are designed to complement the Project 21631 Buyan-M ('Brawler') missile ships, also built at Zelenodolsk. The latter vessels, also a recent development, are designed specifically for the Caspian Sea and the lower reaches of the Volga.



Commenting on the defense order in a piece for the independent news and analysis hub PolitRussia, defense commentator Boris Stepnov suggested that compared to the Buyan-M, "the Karakut is more seaworthy and has a number of tactical and technical advantages."

"For instance, to protect themselves from enemy air power, the Buyans feature a 30 mm Ak-630M-2 Duet machine gun, which is adequate for use on rivers and in the Caspian. But operations at great distance from its home territory require more powerful protection. The Karakut is equipped with the Pantsir-M," a naval version of the Pantsir-S1 combined surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery system produced by the KBP Instrument Design Bureau.

It's known that the Karakut uses the 3S13 launcher, allowing the vessel to use both the Onyx anti-ship and Calibr-NK cruise missiles.

more...

http://sputniknews.com/russia/20160807/1044034181/russian-karakut-warships-analysis.html

[tonyt53]

1. Everyone of these ships is followed by satellites day and night.

Either the US, Britain, France or China knows where every one of them is at any time. Ships nowadays amount to not much more than cannon fodder.

[dumbcat]

11. It's not quite that simple

Granted, satellites can do a lot, but ocean surveillance is a particular problem. Lots of cloud cover in many maritime areas. Ships nowadays are very well shielded from infrared imagery. There are radar based ocean surveillance sats (I worked with the Lacrosse system many years ago) but they have their own problems.

There are just not enough assets to track every threat 24/7 everywhere.

[Adrahil]

2. LOL... those little corvettes are barely ocean-going.

One Harpoon missile each would take care of them, if push came to shove.

[dembotoz]

3. map of the black sea to those curious

http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/blacksea.htm

[MicaelS]

4. Have to admit the ship in the first photo

Has beautiful lines. Looks very clean and trim.

[HereSince1628]

6. Seems like a stealth related profile...

with one auto loading missile launcher?

[MicaelS]

9. And a single 100mm AAA forward. n/t

[HereSince1628]

13. Oh, AAA! I thought that was a little 6 inch gun.

I don't really know what the tactical role of that class of ships is supposed to be...

[MicaelS]

20. Read the article linked to in the OP.

Those little ships have a very long reach. They are not just anti-ship, look at the map showing the attack radius of their cruise missiles. A very big punch in a small package.

[B Calm]

5. How many knots per hour?

[Purveyor]

7. The vessels have maximum speed of 30 knots, a cruising range of up to 2,500 nautical...

The vessels have maximum speed of 30 knots, a cruising range of up to 2,500 nautical miles, and can stay at sea for up to 15 days at a time.

[dawg]

8. Little "red" corvette ...

baby you're much too fast!

[Bucky]

10. ha ha!!

my earworm too

[edhopper]

12. I think our new ones

can handle it.

[Img][/img]

[baldguy]

14. They're not for us.

They're for Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania.

[Nevernose]

18. I don't think they're for Turkey, either

I think Erdogan is trying to pivot towards Russia and away from the NATO block, creating a new line of power from Moscow to Damascus. It might open up more political and financial possibilities than Turkey has had so far, and therefore potentially in their best interest.

[Odin2005]

16. Wow, we got sci-fi ships, now!

[B Calm]

17. Our old decommissioned ones would blow that little canoe out of the water.

My old ship USS Albany CG10.

[jpak]

19. That version of the LCS does not have any over-the-horizon anti-ship missiles

and a single 57 mm gun.

It is no match for the new Russian corvettes.

[edhopper]

21. Then we use one of these

[IMG][/IMG]

[jpak]

22. They lack Harpoon missiles as well, and the 155 mm guns are out-ranged by Ch/Ru missiles.

and they don't have any CIWS.

[Odin2005]

15. I was thinking of a different kind of Corvette