TASS (The Severny PKB reported its readiness to present a version of the patrol ship of project 22160), a short statement was published by the General Director of the Northern Design Bureau (SPKB) Andrei Dyachkov, which was very surprised by its essence.
Several points are unclear and surprising here. Who is this "customer"? And why would he suddenly need "additional ships" of one of the most unsuccessful projects in the history of Russian shipbuilding? And what does "restyling" mean by the Northern PKB?
Let's start with the concept of "restyling".
Now translation from Russian into Russian. If some "Customer", which needs additional ships of Project 22160, and some additional (different from the original) combat missions are determined for these ships, then the Severnoye PKB can change the thickness of the guard rails and the configuration of the galley equipment for these requirements. And sheathe the captain's chair in gray leather.
In general, the terminology should be more careful.
For.
In general, if everyone correctly understood the statement of the general director, then we are talking about a superficial renovation of the ships of the project 22160.
And here the question arises: is it necessary?
About the "Customer". There are only one and a half. Russian Navy and Algerian Navy. The Algerian Navy is just a half, because there have been statements about the fact that a contract for the construction of ships was signed. But no details.
Although the information leaked to the media says that in Russia only one ship will be built for Algeria (if any), the other three will be built directly in Algeria. And that's all, no more information, including about the construction of a ship at Russian shipyards.
So it is likely that the "agreement" with Algeria is nothing more than a marketing ploy to attract potential buyers.
As for the Russian ships of Project 22160, they received the nickname "doves of peace" in the navy. So the sailors appreciated the more than mediocre combat value of these ships.
And here it is just right to ask the question: where did all this come from? As one character of a Soviet cartoon said, "a tree just won't buzz like that."
Of course, money is at the heart of everything. This is fine. It's not normal - it's when there is no money. This is a very uncomfortable state of both the soul and the body.
The Northern PKB has no money and is not particularly expected.
And here it is simply necessary to make an excursion into the recent past, which can perfectly illustrate the current situation.
In general, what is the task of such a company as the Northern Design Bureau? That's right, work on creating ships that will then have to be built. Then there will be money, awards and everything else. When there is no work - accordingly, nothing like that will happen.
The market is so … ruthless.
The story actually began in 2006. Then the Border Service of the FSB of Russia announced a tender for a new patrol ship to protect coastal waters. The winner (as expected) was the Project 22460 Okhotnik, a “court” ship of the Northern PKB.
Many opinions were expressed on this topic at one time, mainly accusations were directed at the director of the SPKB Yuri Fedorovich Yarov, a former Leningrad party functionary who found himself in the chair of the general director of the SPKB.
Yarov, a man with a really interesting career, could well have used his skills in hardware games. In general, it is not so important today, the main thing is that the 22460 project won the tender and went into production. And for the creation of the ship's project, several designers were awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation.
Later, however, it turned out that the ship was not very good. More precisely, you can think of worse, but not worth it.
At the start, there were sanctions, and instead of German engines from MTU, they had to install Chinese ones. Russian diesel engines, as you understand, for ships of this class do not exist in nature. Chinese diesel engines could not produce the required 30 knots, in our time, the characteristics are modest "up to 28 knots in calm water", in fact, the correct figure is 25-26 knots.
Further, it turned out that even with a slight excitement, the oncoming waves flooded the ship over the glass of the wheelhouse and seriously sway the patrol boat.
“Driving on calm water” with maximum speed is a separate song. In the characteristics of the ship it was stated that "the ship will be able to carry out service in a sea state of 6 points, while being free to maneuver."
In fact, the 630-ton boat, with such excitement, bounced like a ball over the waves. How about "free maneuvering" - it's hard to say, let's not touch on this topic.
But it can be added that despite the fact that the ship's equipment includes a helicopter weighing up to 12 tons (Ka-226 or Ansat) and 4 drones, for which a telescopic telescopic hangar is provided, the use of these means is possible only in calm weather, since the slightest excitement at sea, multiplied by the instability of a small boat, simply excludes normal takeoff and landing on the deck of the patrol boat.
Therefore, the helicopter is the rarest guest on the ships of Project 22460.
And it is not surprising that the Border Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation has significantly reduced the series of ships, after the construction of the last, "Rasul Gamzatov", which will become the fourteenth in a row, the construction of ships of project 22460 will not continue.
So of the 30 originally planned ships, the border service decided to limit itself to 14.
Yarov left the chair of the general director of SPKB in 2007 and difficult times began for the bureau. Participation in the tender for a frontier ship of the 1st rank of the oceanic zone (immediately thinking about the Pacific Fleet) SPKB failed miserably. And in fact, the hero of our story, the project 22160 ship, was out of work. And something had to be done about it.
Actually, there was only one way out - by hook or by crook to shove the corvette of the Russian Navy.
The chance, more precisely, the coincidence of circumstances, helped. In 2013, when we had not yet spoiled relations with the whole world, the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Viktor Chirkov, visited the United States, where he was received by his then-colleague, Commander-in-Chief of the US Navy, Admiral Greenert. It was Grinert who introduced Chirkov to the so-called littoral ships.
Then the idea of modular warships with interchangeable weapons in containers looked very impressive. And Chirkov was impressed by the "Freedom".
Now we know that the littoral ships of the US Navy are another headache. At a cost of $ 500 million, the ships carry frankly weak weapons from a 57-mm cannon, a short-range RAM SAM system and a helicopter. For a patrol ship of 3000 tons, this is not enough. And the container modules are still in the debugging stage. Although, of course, no one canceled the carrying capacity of 700 tons and the speed of 45 knots, and these are strong components of the project.
But Chirkov liked the "Freedom". And the admiral became a supporter of modularity, and since the representatives of the SPKB promised exactly modularity in the 22160 project, the commander-in-chief began to promote this project for admission to the Navy.
True, unlike American designers, SPKB did not promise a speed of 45 knots. Maximum 30. But modularity and the ability to accommodate containers with cruise missiles "Caliber" or anti-ship missiles "Uranus" is quite.
And in the end it turned out that the tender for corvettes for the protection of the water area was canceled by Chirkov in favor of Project 22160, and the fleet immediately ordered six such ships.
In general, they shoved the ships into the fleet. For what? If you look in the same place where they write about the characteristics, then for "carrying out patrol service for the protection of territorial waters, patrolling a 200-mile economic zone in the open and closed seas, suppressing smuggling and pirate activities, searching and providing assistance to victims of maritime disasters in peacetime, and in the military for the protection of ships and vessels in the passage by sea, as well as naval bases and water areas in order to warn of an attack by various enemy forces and assets."
That is, what, in theory, the patrol ships of the Border Service should have been doing. Why the Navy needs such happiness is somewhat unclear.
But it is a fact: the ship, which the Coast Guard of the Border Guard Service did not build for its own purposes, ended up in the Russian Navy for approximately the same purposes. It is logical that the ship was created for this, and it would be difficult to use a patrol ship, say, in the role of a minesweeper. But why is he to the fleet - it is still very difficult to say.
The difficulties began immediately. It was not possible to squeeze out the promised 30-knot speed even on "Vasily Bykov", which has engines from MAN. What will be the rest of the ships that will be equipped with the engines of the Kolomna plant, we still have to find out.
But if under engines from MAN "Bulls" produced 27 knots, then how many will be with 10D49 of the Kolomna diesel locomotive plant - I will not undertake to say. The 10D49 is a 16-cylinder version of the very common 5D49 diesel locomotive diesel with an output of 5200 hp.
For reference: "Ivan Gren", equipped with two such diesel engines with a displacement of 5,000 tons, produces a maximum of 18 knots.
It can be assumed that the maximum speed of Project 22160 ships under Kolomna diesel engines will be from 22 to 24 knots.
The armament of the ships of the project 22160 is not very different from the armament of the border patrol boats. The main caliber is the 76-mm automatic universal gun AK-176MA. One. Two anti-sabotage machine guns "Kord" 12, 7-mm, two automatic grenade launchers. The anti-aircraft armament consists of one installation 3M47 "Gibka" and eight MANPADS "Igla" or "Verba".
There is a place for helicopter landing, but there is no helicopter in the permanent set. It can land and be used, but not constantly, since a slip is equipped in the stern for receiving an assault assault boat of project 02800.
True, it can be lowered and taken only with excitement of no more than two points. The helicopter also cannot be used when the sea is more than 3 points.
In general, larger than project 22460, but the same gentle phenomenon.
And what about the "Calibers"?
And with "Caliber" everything is very sad. The attempt was made when "Vasily Bykov" through internal channels crossed from the Baltic to the White Sea, where the "Caliber" firing was to take place.
The small missile ships Zeleny Dol (Project 21631 Buyan-M) and Odintsovo (Project 22800 Karakurt), which came together with Bykov, were successfully fired by the Caliber at both surface and ground targets.
"Vasily Bykov" could not shoot.
It turned out (why only then?) That launching a cruise missile from a container at the stern is dangerous, since it can lead to an accident due to the fact that the hull of the ship was very narrowed in the stern, where the container with missiles should have been. We decided not to risk it.
After it became clear that the "Vasily Bykov" constructively could not launch missiles from the container at the stern, there was talk that the "Caliber" on the "Bykov" could be placed in a vertical launcher 3S14 for eight cells, which can be shoved between the AK turret -176 and superstructure.
Why is the question of the century. There are ships that were originally designed to accommodate and launch cruise missiles from them. Both "Buyans" and "Karakurt" are obviously more reliable carriers of "Caliber" than the usual patrol patrol, converted for this purpose.
There is an opinion (from knowledgeable smart people) that it is more profitable to build specialized ships, increasing the number of high-quality carriers of "Caliber", than to pull an owl on a globe, trying to stick "calibers" wherever possible.
Not always (especially in our country) quantity is necessarily quality. After all, we have both ships and submarines to carry the "Calibers". Normally equipped for this.
As for the ships of the project 22160, the alteration for something that goes beyond the patrol ship is unlikely to cause a global improvement in the characteristics of an already unsuccessful ship. Re-styling is not what you really need.
There was an attempt to install the vertical installation of the 3S90M anti-aircraft missile system "Shtil-1" for 12 missiles in the place where they wanted to shove the 3S14. This seems to have improved the ship's air defense and would have allowed it to perform somewhat broader tasks. However, it turned out that it is possible to arrange, but how and with what the missiles will be guided is unclear.
The fact is that "Positive-MK", which was developed for small ships with corresponding tasks, is somewhat weak for working with such a "fat" complex as "Shtil-1", which was generally developed on the basis of "Buk-M1" for ships class frigate destroyer.
And the Shtil-1 is frankly too heavy for a ship of this class.
And the result was a "nothing" ship. "Dove of peace". As many "experts" from naval affairs began to explain, in terms of characteristics, the patrol ships of Project 22160 are close to offshore patrol ships (OPV), which are part of many fleets of the world.
That is, everything is correct, the whole world is building such squalor, which means that we also need it.
Here are just gentlemen "experts" for some reason do not specify who builds such ships as OPV, and for whom. And here everything is very informative. Such ships are being built by France, Germany, South Korea and even Romania. Mainly for those who cannot build themselves. Senegal, Thailand, Pakistan and so on.
That is, OPV (Offshore Patrol Vessel) is built primarily for those who do not have the ability (industrial or financial) to build normal warships. A beggar's watchman, if you will.
And this ship of project 22160 Severnoye PKB wants to make a "candy" with the help of the declared restyling. However, we all know perfectly well what candy is not made from. So from the project 22160 a normal strike ship will not come out.
In order for something worthwhile and sane to come out, the ship must be made longer, wider and deeper. So that the same "Calibers", starting off, would not risk breaking off their wings or smashing the launch containers. Well, or just to place normal strike weapons.
But sorry, we already have such ships!
"Admiral Gorshkov" - well, where is it better? Already in service, already under construction. And do not require finishing touches such as "owl to the globe".
It is clear that everyone wants to live. And the employees of the Northern PKB are no exception. But excuse me, maybe we should end up with the undercover games and do what is so necessary today and tomorrow? That is, the creation of really necessary ships for the Russian fleet? And not trying to sell what is under the guise of what is needed?
Restyling in the automotive world is the agony of the model. This is when they no longer take it, but it is necessary to sell the remaining reserve. But it works with cars. With battleships, things are a little different.
The Northern Design Bureau should think about the future of the enterprise. If they continue to work there, as on the Vietnamese PS-500 corvette, as on the ships of projects 22460 and 22160, soon Russia will have another bankrupt.
We do not need restyling for the “doves of peace”. We need normal and functional ships. You shouldn't shove "Caliber" on fire stations, they will not become warships from this. The world has changed, it is worth understanding and accepting it.
