In March Russia
put into the service the first of their Buyan-M class corvettes. This is
one of several new Russian designs intended for coastal patrol. At the
high end there is the 2,200 ton Stereguschyy class corvettes that
entered service in 2007. Six of these have been ordered or are in
service. At the low end there’s the 550 ton Buyan that entered service
in 2006. Only three were built before it was decided that the larger and
more heavily armed Buyan-M was the way to go.
Buyan-M is a 950 ton ship that is 74 meters (243 feet) long
and has a crew of 36. Top speed is 45 kilometers an hour and endurance
is ten days. Armament consists of a 100mm gun, two 14.5mm machine-guns,
two AK-630 multibarrel 30mm autocannon for close range defence against missiles and aircraft. There are eight vertical launch tubes
holding 1.2 ton 3K14 Kaliber anti-ship missiles (range 300 kilometers).
There is also a short-range (5-6 kilometers) missile system (Gibkha
3M47) with eight missiles. There is an air/surface radar and optional
sonar. The heavily armed Buyan-M provides you with a low-cost patrol
vessel that can handle just about anything it runs into during coastal
patrols and can even be useful in wartime.
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