Black Sea Fleet to Receive 11 New Vessels by End of Year – Russian Navy

The Russian Black Sea Fleet is to receive 11 new ships and service vessels, including two anti-sabotage boats, six service vessels, two diesel-electric submarines and two frigates, Navy Commander Adm. Viktor Chirkov said Thursday.

 

“By the end of the year the Black Sea Fleet will receive two Grachonok-class anti-sabotage boats and six service vessels of different classes. Two Project 636.3 diesel-electric submarines, the ‘Novorossiysk’ and the ‘Rostov-on-Don,’ will join the Black Sea Fleet this year,” Chirkov said.

 

Chirkov also said that by the end of 2014 the Black Sea Fleet is to receive a new Project 1135.6 frigate, the “Admiral Grigorovich,” and in September-October welcome a second ship of the same project, the “Admiral Essen.” Overall, the project entails six ships, with all of them going to the Black Sea Fleet.

 

Earlier, the commander-in-chief announced that in 2017 Russia will start building a new generation of non-nuclear submarines. The submarines are expected to be equipped with an anaerobic system that increases speed and provides submarines with the ability to remain submerged while recharging their batteries instead of having to surface to do so.

 

The Project 636.3 Varshavyanka-class submarines should be constructed by 2016. The third of the six submarines has been scheduled to launch Thursday in St. Petersburg. The submarines are primarily intended for anti-ship and anti-submarine missions in relatively shallow waters.

Two new submarines to be laid down for Russian Navy in October

Two new diesel electric submarines will be laid down for the Russian Navy in October, Defense Ministry spokesperson for the Navy Igor Dygalov said on Tuesday.

The submarines, called Kolpino and Veliky Novgorod, and four other Kilo-class (Varshavyanka by Russian classification) craft are to join the Navy by 2016.

 

Dygalo confirmed that the Russian Navy Ensign would be hoisted on the leading submarine of the series, called Novorossiysk, on August 22.

 

The Novorossiysk, the construction of which began in August 2010, is finishing the second stage of sea trials in the Baltic Sea and will arrive at St. Petersburg’s Admiralty Shipyard before the flag raising ceremony.

 

A third Project 636.3 submarine called Stary Oskol will be launched on August 28. Two more submarines of the same series, Krasnodar and Rostov on Don, are still under construction.

Project 636.3 diesel electric submarines being built for the Russian Black Sea Fleet will be tested in deep waters at the North Fleet, Admiralty Shipyard Director-General Alexander Buzakov said earlier.

“The submarines will undergo deep-water trials in northern testing ranges,” Buzakov said.

 

The new submarines will be stationed in Novorossiysk and Sevastopol on the Black Sea.

 

The Black Sea Fleet will get about 30 new warships in the next six years, Navy Commander-in-Chief Viktor Chirkov said.

 

“The Black Sea Fleet will receive six Project 636 submarines by 2016 and the first of the six Project 1135.6 escort ships in 2015. The Fleet will also get six Project 22160 patrol boats for patrolling territorial waters and the 200-mile exclusive economic zone, escorting ships at sea and protecting naval bases and water areas to warn about enemy attacks,” he said.

 

“Six such submarines will be built for the Black Sea Fleet in the next two years,” the commander said.

 

In late June, the Russian Navy was joined by a new-generation mine countermeasures vessel (Project 12700) designed by the Almaz Design Burea and built by the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard. The vessel is intended for finding and destroying mines near naval bases at safe distances. “Three more such ships will be built shortly,” Chirkov said.

 

The Navy will also acquire four fast-speed Raptor patrol boats complete with the most up-to-date control systems and intended for landing and assault missions.

“The Navy expects to receive more than 50 ships and support vessels before the end of the year,” he said.

 

Chirkov said the Black Sea Fleet was “obsolete beyond reason and we now have the opportunity to stop its aging and upgrade underground and surface forces in order to be able to carry out our missions effectively in the Black and Mediterranean Seas”.

 

The Black Sea Fleet is carrying out an ambitious rearmament program to upgrade its capabilities in Crimea.

 

“The Navy expects to receive more than 50 ships and support vessels before the end of the year,” Chirkov said.

 

Russia to Overhaul Fleet of Amphibious Assault Ships

Russia’s fleet of amphibious assault ships requires extensive modernization because their service life has been largely overextended, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday.

 

“The Russian navy currently has 19 ships of this type. They have been in service, on average, for more than 25 years,” Shoigu said at a video conference meeting with military commanders.

 

Shoigu said the navy was expected to receive a new Ivan Gren-class landing ship and two French-built Mistral-class helicopter carriers, the Vladivostok and the Sevastopol, through 2015.

 

“However, these additions are not enough, and we have to pay attention to the overhaul of existing [amphibious assault] ships,” the minister said, adding that at least two ships should undergo maintenance and repairs annually.

 

Shoigu’s comments come amid a growing international standoff over Crimea, an autonomous region within Ukraine that refused to recognize new nationalist powers in Kiev that ousted President Viktor Yanukovych in February.

 

Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which is largely based on the Crimean peninsula, reportedly includes seven aging assault landing ships of the Alligator and Ropucha classes.

 

Russia's first Project 11356 frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich, will join the Black Sea Fleet in 2014, Vice-Admiral Alexander Fedotenkov said on Monday.

“The newest Project 11356 escort ship, the Admiral Grigorovich, should be launched in 2013 and join the Black Sea Fleet in 2014,” Fedotenkov said.

The Kaliningrad-based Yantar shipyard is to build a total of six Project 11356 frigates for delivery between 2014 and 2016 under a contract with the Defense Ministry.

The lead warship in the series, the Admiral Grigorovich, was laid down in December 2010, the second, the Admiral Essen, in July 2011 and the third, the Admiral Makarov, in February 2012.

The Project 11356 frigates, displacing 3,850 tons, are designed for anti-surface and anti-submarine warfare, both independently and as an escort, and are also armed with air defense systems.

The class are armed with an eight-cell launcher for Kalibr and Klub (3M54E) anti-ship and surface-to-surface missiles, a 100-mm main gun, Kashtan gun/missile close-in air defense systems, Shtil vertical-launch air defense missile systems, two torpedo tubes, an anti-submarine rocket system and a Ka-28 or Ka-31 helicopter, according to globalsecurity.org and rusnavy.com.

The Indian Navy received two Talwar class frigates, based on the 11356 design, in April and November last year, Times of India reported.