Many media outlets have reported that the Smerch, a modernized project 12341 Gadfly, was tested in the Pacific Fleet.
How to correctly assess this, where to attribute it: to success or not?
In order to understand everything correctly, one must plunge into history, which, fortunately, does not cause problems.
Mid 60s of the last century. Yes, it’s already history. But it was then that work began on the ships of the project, intended for warfare in closed seas and the near ocean zone.
It was not possible to meet the allotted tonnage for missile boats, which is why, in general, a new class was born, which we called small missile ships (MRK). The ships of the project 12341 had a tonnage of 640 tons, while the missile boats were packed in 500 tons or less.
Our potential, assessing the armament of the MRK without further ado, brought them into the class of corvettes.
Indeed, at the time of their entry into the combat watch "Gadfly" were very sharp-toothed and problematic ships for the enemy. They were still small in size, fairly nimble (35 knots) and had an impressive range of 4,000 miles at 12 knots and 1,800 miles at 18 knots.
And the armament seemed to be in complete order. 6 anti-ship missiles "Malachite", artillery mounts AK-176 and AK-630, as well as anti-aircraft missile system "Osa-MA" with ammunition of 20 anti-aircraft guided missiles.
Why "seems to be" - more on that below.
There were also significant drawbacks. Seaworthiness was limp in both legs, starting with medium excitement. And during a heavy pitching operation of the ships aroused criticism and angry muttering of the crews.
The second huge drawback was the use of light aluminum-magnesium alloys of the AMg61 brand in the construction of the hull superstructure in the construction of ships. Light alloys are less durable than steel ones and when a fire breaks out, they easily ignite, quickly burn and melt, making it difficult to fight for the survivability of the ship.
An example of this is the death of the Monsoon, which was hit by a target rocket launched from another boat. The crew, knocked out by a rocket explosion and a fire that started when the rocket fuel and oxidizer ignited, could not fight for the survivability of the ship. As a result, as a result of the disaster, 39 crew members died, and another 37 people were rescued. But there also the commander of the Primorsky flotilla, Rear Admiral Golovko, put his mind and skills into practice.
By the way, the MRK-9 sold to Libya, aka "Tariq Ibn Ziyad", also burned down. True, in a real battle.
In general, let's say this: the ship is not without flaws. Plus frankly weak defense against air attacks. This was shown by the death of "Monsoon", and the Libyan "Ean Zara" and "Ean Zaquit", which could not fight off attacks from the air.
The first series of "Gadflies", "clean" RTOs of project 12341, have long been written off and disassembled. The ships of Project 1234.1 remained afloat, the most recent of which "Liven" (BF) and "Razliv" (Pacific Fleet) were commissioned in 1992, and the oldest - "Tempest" - in 1970.
But we, of course, are interested in those ships that are still in service, and, therefore, will go for this very modernization. That is, project 1234.1.
"Calm" and "Iceberg". In service since 1979. Forty-year-old ships are, one might say, veterans. I cannot say that their presence makes me so happy, 40 years is a period.
The youngest is Razliv. In service since 1992. “Only something” is 27 years old.
The rest, as is already clear, were built between 1979 and 1992.
The modernization will affect, first of all, weapons, because the P-120 "Malachite" today looks simply frivolous.
Instead of 6 launchers for cruise missiles P-120 "Malachite" with a firing range of up to 150 km, following the example of the Smerch, the ships will receive 16 launchers of the Kh-35U Uranus anti-ship missiles with a firing range of up to 260 km and active homing heads.
In addition, the artillery mounts will be replaced with more modern AK-176MA and AK-630M.
X-35 "Uranus" is more interesting than "Malachite". The missile is equipped with a penetrating high-explosive fragmentation warhead, which is designed to destroy missile, torpedo, artillery boats, surface ships with a displacement of up to 5,000 tons and sea transports. Plus good protection against electronic countermeasures.
But the main bonus is that the Uranus can be used against ground targets, which automatically makes the MRK a theoretical participant in amphibious operations, quite capable of supporting the landing.
Well, 16 missiles instead of 6 is a significant increase.
In addition, the update will also affect the engine compartment of each ship. Sources claim that new engines will be installed on the MRK, which will be more economical, and in general, the new engine on a forty-year-old ship is a new engine, even if it is Chinese.
It would be natural to add modern artillery fire control systems, since the Gadflies have big problems with firing gun mounts in waves of more than 4 points.
Many experts who have spoken out believe that in fact all these innovations will give the Gadflies a second life. And upon completion of the modernization, these ships will meet the most modern requirements of naval combat.
It is clear that these RTOs will not fight against American AUGs. There are no chances, as it were, but in the waters of the Baltic and Black Sea "puddles" they can be very useful. Well, in the islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Even a few relatively small ships carrying one and a half dozen stealthy and anti-jamming missiles of universal action are serious.
Not a bad idea. In general, the idea of recreating a "mosquito" fleet with modern missiles looks very, very optimistic, and most importantly, unlike any aircraft carriers and destroyers of terrible tonnage with nuclear propulsion systems, it is feasible.
But here, of course, there is a "but". This is the number and age of ships. Still, 12 ships for three fleets, this, you see, is not very much. But better than nothing.
But the age … From 40 to 27. It is clear that even deep modernization will have an effect faster than the construction of new ships. But forty years … There are things like metal fatigue, internal corrosion and other "pleasures".
Will it be possible to seriously count on such "old new" RTOs? Of course, time will tell, but fears still remain.
We do not have enough ships. We really miss modern ships. We do not have enough new ships. Conceived with the old RTOs of project 1234.1 - these are "crutches". This is, of course, better than nothing, but these are prostheses instead of legs.
If we want to have real protection of sea (and not only) borders, we first of all need to spend money not on the creation of frankly stupid and useless projects of aircraft carriers and "destroyers", over which the whole world will laugh, but to restore shipbuilding enterprises and build on them ships that we needed yesterday.
