On March 31, 2010 in St. Petersburg, the next combat ship intended for the Russian Navy, the Soobrazitelny corvette, was launched. The new corvette is the second separate combat unit under the project 20380. The new warship was named after the old Russian and later Soviet tradition of calling small warships with a purely adjective name. Prior to the modern "Smart", the same name was given to the Soviet Navy's large anti-submarine ship of Project 61, and before it was the legendary destroyer of Project 7, which became famous during the Great Patriotic War.
According to the press service of the shipbuilding enterprise, the "Soobrazitelny" corvette has fundamentally important differences from the lead ship of this series, the "Guarding" corvette. During the construction of "Smart", all decisions of the general customer of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation concerning weapons, communications complex, general ship systems, and automation systems were implemented. Significant changes have also been made to the design of the hull and superstructure of the warship.
The lead ship "Guarding" of project 20380 entered the Russian Baltic Fleet in early October 2008. At the end of 2009, by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation, a number of Severnaya Verf employees who took part in the design and construction of the ship were awarded state awards. "Savvy" will also become part of the Russian Baltic Fleet. It was "Smart", which is currently being tested, was at the head of the naval parade dedicated to the Day of the Navy, which was attended by the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev.
The displacement of the Soobrazitelny corvette is 2,000 tons, the cruising speed is 27 knots, and the autonomous cruising range at a speed of 14 knots is 4,000 nautical miles. The crew of the ship, taking into account the group serving the deck helicopter, will be 100 people. At the current time, the Russian Navy's need for ships of this class is at least 30 units.
The state armament program, which is designed for the period up to 2020, provides for the construction of about 40 warships of various classes for the Navy. It must be said right away that some of them are truly unique. So, in particular, at the Sredne-Nevsky shipyard of St. Petersburg, the assembly of the hull of a new minesweeper, which is made entirely of fiberglass, has been completed. According to the developers, a ship with such a hull will become practically invulnerable to most existing types of sea mines. Also, the minesweeper will be the world's largest polymer ship. Previously, polymer ships were already created in the world, but their displacement was about 2-3 times less than that of a Russian ship.
It should be noted that during the time that has passed since the collapse of the USSR, the Russian navy has significantly lagged behind its opponents in introducing new generation systems. It is clear that now it is necessary to quickly make up for lost time. Quite often, this catch-up becomes a major breakthrough. So, today Russia has practically come to the creation of a modern unified family of ships of classes from a small corvette to a huge destroyer, compatible in a significant part of the main systems and differing mainly in the number of supplied weapons and protection systems. The end-to-end unification of the BIUS, used on all promising and existing projects of rank 1-3, will provide the Russian fleet in the near future with the possibilities of coordinating the directions of action and controlling the forces at its disposal more serious, in comparison with many leading fleets of the world.
Today Russia is building small-scale ships of new classes. Corvette "Savvy" became, as indicated above, only the second separate combat unit of project 20380, in which three more warships are being created. It is planned to increase the scale of the construction of warships only after all the information about all the shortcomings and advantages of the new projects has been collected and analyzed, which will make it possible to make the necessary corrections. Taking into account the fact that the lead ship "Guarding" has been undergoing trials for two years now, it will not be long to wait. Over the next 10 years, the Russian Navy should receive at least 20 corvettes of project 20380. They will have tasks to fulfill - from border patrolling of their own waters to supporting large warships, including universal amphibious assault ships, cruisers, destroyers and, finally, aircraft carriers. the construction of which is planned in the coming decade.
Of course, for such a fairly wide range of combat missions, 20 corvettes will simply not be enough, in connection with which, today, judgments periodically appear about the need to increase the current costs of building new ships. They are really necessary for Russia, taking into account the enormous length of the sea borders, combined with the considerable distance from each other of the central theaters of military operations, call for the maintenance of a sufficiently powerful fleet capable of withstanding a heavy battle with each enemy in its own theater of operations.
