The Russian Navy is in need of rapid replenishment - primarily with frigates and corvettes capable of performing a wide range of missions. Difficulties encountered in the construction of modern ships force us to turn to proven solutions. Such, for example, as a frigate of project 11356.
"Workhorses" are few
Today, the command of the Russian Navy is facing the urgent problem of urgent replacement of Soviet-built "veterans" in the naval composition of its operational-strategic formations. Unfortunately, overhaul with modernization for many of them is extremely difficult in terms of design features. Indeed, the naval design bureaus did not assume that the offspring they designed would have to remain in service for more than 25-30 years.
As a result, our Navy faced a bleak prospect: if the number of newly built combat units is not urgently increased, by the end of this - the beginning of the next decade there will be a landslide reduction in the number of ships. To the greatest extent due to the "workhorses" - the BOD project 1155, the still remaining patrol boats of the project 1135 and the destroyers of the project 956.
At the same time, it should be understood that the 25 TFR, EM and BOD ("Soviet trio") existing in the fleets are already not enough to fulfill all the tasks assigned to the Navy. In addition, no more than 15-16 of them are actually in service, the rest are either mothballed or undergoing prolonged repairs. By 2025, no more than three or four patrol boats, destroyers and BODs "born" in the USSR have a chance to continue their service. Thus, within 15 years, the Russian Navy needs to obtain at least 20 modern frigates capable of compensating for the absence of ships of the three classes mentioned above.
The problem of missile cruisers stands apart. Here, the issue of restoring three TARKRs of project 1144, as well as the modernization of Peter the Great, is being worked out. The possibility of overhaul of three ships of Project 1164 is also being discussed. The destroyer of a new generation should supplement or replace the Soviet cruisers, as far as can be judged from the available information, corresponding to them in terms of combat capabilities and practically not inferior in size (more than 10 thousand tons of displacement, ammunition of the universal ship firing complex - more than 100 missiles of various types). However, the project has not yet begun.
The frigate of Project 22350, a new generation warship developed by the Northern Design Bureau, was originally supposed to compensate for the decommissioning of the "Soviet trio". With a relatively modest displacement (up to 4500 tons), it has impressive firepower: the typical equipment of its launchers is 16 Onyx supersonic anti-ship missiles and 32 medium-range missiles. This roughly corresponds to the firepower of the Project 956EM destroyers, which have 8 anti-ship missiles and 48 anti-aircraft missiles, while the latter are launched using outdated easel launchers.
In addition to the above, the project 22350 frigate has an impressive arsenal of close combat air defense, anti-submarine weapons, a helicopter, and is equipped with modern electronic equipment. In a word, we are talking about a worthy replacement of Soviet-built combat units.
Unfortunately, the time factor played a negative role here. The "Admiral Gorshkov" was laid down in 2006, launched in the fall of 2010, and should go to sea for trials this year. Its brother, Admiral Kasatonov, was laid down on the slipway three years later and is expected to be commissioned in 2012-2013. In total, with rhythmic financing in the current decade, about 8-10 ships of this project can be built, and by 2025 - 12-14. The trouble is that this amount is clearly not enough. The natural solution seems to be to increase the volume of construction. However, in the current conditions, this is not so easy to do, and the difficulties are connected not only and not so much with money.
Verified option
The construction of Project 11356 frigates for the Indian Navy is one of the most successful export operations of the Russian defense industry. In the early 2000s, India received three ships made at the St. Petersburg shipyards, and now at the Yantar plant in Kaliningrad, work is being completed on three more frigates. Mastered by the industry, having strong and familiar to the fleet "roots" in the form of the SKR project 1135, it was this ship that was chosen as a "backup option" for the replenishment of the Russian Navy and "Yantar" received an order from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
At first, it was about three combat units for the Black Sea Fleet, and the lead "Admiral Grigorovich" was laid down in the fall of 2010. Construction of the Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov began almost simultaneously. Taking into account the already mastered process of building frigates, by the fall of 2014, all three "Admirals" should be commissioned. At the same time, it was clear from the very beginning that the matter would not be limited to this - not only the Black Sea Fleet needs urgent replenishment, but even that needs at least five new ships. As a result, now they are already talking about six "three hundred and fifty-sixths", and this is clearly not the last increase in the order.
The project, created on the basis of the basic platform 1135 worked out in Soviet times, is becoming a real salvation. The ship mastered by industry, with a full construction cycle of less than three years and excellent sailing characteristics, is not a solution to the problem. It was only necessary to modernize the "stuffing". The systems with which Indian frigates are equipped do not fully meet the requirements of the Russian Navy. In particular, we are talking about the Uragan air defense missile system with a single-channel deck launcher, which does not allow to realize all the capabilities of modern equipment and missiles, a number of electronic equipment elements, a combat information and control system, etc.
In order to improve the characteristics of the ship, the project was finalized using a number of equipment elements borrowed from project 22350, in particular, universal shipborne firing complexes, BIUS "Sigma", etc.
The updated frigate is inferior to its promising counterpart in displacement (4000 tons versus 4500), the number of UKSK launchers (8 instead of 16), the power of artillery weapons (100-mm universal gun mount, not 130-mm) and stealth - the project 22350 frigate design was introduced significantly more elements that reduce radar signature compared to 11356. However, the significantly lower price and high speed of construction compensate for the differences.
A lot depends on the successful implementation of the program. If "Yantar" successfully copes with the task, in the future other enterprises will join the construction of frigates. The likelihood of success in this case is very high - the Indian order demonstrated the ability of the Kaliningrad plant's specialists to work quickly and efficiently, the only question is regular funding.
Disappearance and rebirth
Classification is one of the most interesting questions in the modern navy. There is considerable discrepancy here. The same combat units can be called patrol, patrol, escort ships, corvettes, frigates in different countries. One and the same combat unit in the second half of the 20th century, during its lifetime, was considered a destroyer and a cruiser, a destroyer and a frigate, a frigate and a cruiser, etc., depending on the "political course". By the end of the last century, the tendency of "lowering the level" clearly prevailed - ships that were quite appropriate in terms of capabilities and tasks to classic cruisers (Soviet EM project 956, American "Orly Burke") were ranked among the destroyers.
Today, among other things, the Russian Navy is moving away from the previously adopted classification of ships of lower ranks - small anti-submarine and missile ships, patrol boats - in favor of the western corvette / frigate scheme. What content do the revived concepts that have existed since ancient sailing times carry today?
200 years ago, all sailors knew: both the corvette and the frigate were three-masted ships with direct (naval) sailing equipment. Moreover, the latter (the etymology of the word "frigate" is still a mystery, but it is used in almost all European languages), as now, was a class above the corvette. The most powerful frigates fought in the battle line along with battleships. The frigate had at least one closed gun deck (and sometimes two - open and closed) and carried 30-50 guns (5-6th rank), including heavy ones.
Yielding to battleships in basic dimensions, firepower and hull strength, the frigates were faster, more maneuverable and performed the role of "servants for everything" - from general combat to reconnaissance and from escorting convoys to round-the-world expeditions.
Corvettes (French corvette - light warship, small frigate, Dutch. Corver - hunter ship) very closely intersected with the so-called small frigates (less than 30 guns), which, like corvettes, were already "out of ranks". Corvettes differed from small frigates mainly by the absence of a closed battery and were also multipurpose ships. They carried out reconnaissance, messengers and escort tasks, and in remote seas they could be the flagships of local forces, frightening the natives with carronade fire, covering the actions of sailing boats with light cannons and landing forces.
This division continued until the onset of the steam era in the 1850s, when frigates and corvettes disappeared from the scene for literally three decades. Almost the entire niche of these classes was occupied by the cruisers that replaced them. They were then joined by destroyers and destroyers, who gradually, with the growth of performance characteristics, more and more confidently mastered the role of escort ships.
Corvettes and frigates as a class were brought back to life by the Second World War, when it turned out that there were not enough destroyers, let alone cruisers, to carry out the most important task - escorting convoys that had become truly the blood vessels of the United Nations. In addition, destroyers, not to mention cruisers, are too expensive and overly powerful for such purposes.
So the forgotten two classes were revived again. Corvettes with a displacement of up to a thousand tons were armed with artillery of up to 76-100 mm caliber, 20-40 mm anti-aircraft machine guns (or machine guns), bomb throwers and rocket-propelled bombs. They had quite a solid electronic weaponry, which is called a "gentleman's set": radar (one of the most widespread wartime radars - the famous British "type 271" centimeter range), GAS (for example, type 127DV) and a high-precision direction finder "half-duff". This description, for example, fits the well-known British corvettes of the "flower series" (Flower), multiplied in 267 copies and became for foggy Albion about the same symbol as the T-34 tank for us. Equipped with steam engines with a capacity of 2,750 horsepower, they with their 16 nodes scurried back and forth busily along the line of leisurely crawling convoys. Australian ore carriers from Freetown to Great Britain, Liberty and tankers from the USA to Great Britain, the same Liberty and Soviet transports from Halifax and Hval-Fjord to Murmansk and Arkhangelsk … They found their place everywhere. But their cruising range (3, 5 thousand miles) did not always allow them to accompany the convoys along the entire route, and refueling on the move was not always possible.
This problem was solved by frigates, for example, the British type River. Solid ships, 1370 "long tons" of standard displacement, 1830 full displacement, power plant with a capacity of 5000 to 6500 horsepower (steam turbine or steam engine) and a speed of over 20 knots. Unlike corvettes, they could already accompany convoys along the entire route. And the weapons were more solid than their brethren: a pair of 102-mm (or 114-mm) cannons, up to a dozen anti-aircraft "Erlikons", as well as RBU and bomb release devices with a solid supply of depth charges (up to one and a half hundred), sufficient for serious counteraction to submarines on the route of the convoy.
Corvettes and frigates acquired their modern appearance already in the 60s and 70s thanks to rocket armament. It was then that a sharp increase in the number of URO ships (guided missile weapons) began in all more or less serious fleets, primarily due to the relatively cheap units of these two classes. By the 70s, corvettes and frigates had grown in size (up to 1, 5–2 thousand tons of corvettes, up to 4–5 thousand tons of frigates) and began to turn from purely escort ships into multi-purpose combat units, which were their sailing ancestors. "Multitasking" was determined by the capabilities of the weapon. Anti-submarine potential remained the main one. Powerful sonar systems (GAK), combining several stations (GAS), in combination with guided torpedoes and / or PLRK (anti-submarine missile systems) and the presence (for frigates) of a deck helicopter, still retained the reputation of "submarine hunters" for these ships.
The potential of air defense increased due to the appearance of compact short-range and close-range air defense systems, and compact anti-ship missiles (the most famous and widespread and to this day - "Harpoon" and "Exoset") completed the transformation of corvettes and frigates into multipurpose combat units capable of performing most of the tasks surface fleet.
Back to the roots?
Today, the development of corvettes and frigates, as well as ships of the "senior classes" - destroyers and cruisers, has entered a new stage thanks to universal launchers, which have made it possible to dramatically expand the range of weapons. Anything can be placed in the mines of modern air defense missiles - from a strategic cruise missile to a "package" of light melee missiles.
As a result, the traditional classification loses its meaning. The difference between large combat ships of the missile defense system is leveled, reducing in general to the difference in the volume of ammunition, cruising range and seaworthiness. Modern corvettes carry out traditional tasks of destroyers, frigates and destroyers, in turn, correspond in tasks to classic light and heavy cruisers, and the capabilities and functionality of the cruiser allow us to call it a ship of the modern "battle line". This, in particular, is confirmed by the classification, which in the West is assigned to the Soviet cruisers of the 1144 project - in NATO they are designated as Battle Cruiser, battle cruisers.
It is quite possible that it makes sense to return to the old rank classification, when missile ships will be divided into ranks depending on the number of launch "nests" of their UVP, just as battleships of sailing times were divided into ranks according to the number of guns.
