Soon, another naval show will open in St. Petersburg, where the second corvette of project 20380 will be demonstrated. This summer, it is to enter service with the Russian Navy, joining the lead ship "Steregushchy". Undoubtedly, it is always pleasant to know that our fleet is receiving a new combat unit, but the joy is overshadowed by the extremely low rates of its replenishment.
… And in terms of armament - a frigate
The development of a new multipurpose warship for the Russian Navy began in the 90s, which could not but affect the course of this process. It's not just about underfunding and all kinds of delays that were typical of that time. The main thing is that the design was carried out according to previously unacceptable canons. In an effort to reduce costs, avoiding the traditional Soviet-era construction of several series of ships of different types, the developers made the 20380 project universal, capable, unlike specialized predecessors, to deal with underwater, surface, air, and ground targets.
The versatility of the ship also determined its classification - a corvette, instead of the usual designations for Russian military units of the third rank IPC (small anti-submarine ship), MRK (small missile ship), etc. This time they resorted to Western standards, according to which the corvette is defined as universal, multipurpose combat ship.
However, roughly corresponding to this classification in terms of size (2000 tons of displacement), the promising Russian ship significantly surpasses foreign counterparts in terms of firepower. The presence of eight anti-ship missiles, a deck helicopter, a wide range of hydroacoustic equipment and anti-submarine weapons, a 100-mm gun mount and a rather impressive set of melee air defense systems forced a number of specialists to attribute this ship to a higher class - a frigate.
An equally important characteristic of the new corvettes is the presence on them of the modern combat information and control system (BIUS) "Sigma". It provides simultaneous tracking and engagement of targets on land, water, under water and in the air, similar to the American Aegis system, allowing the organization of collective defense, exchanging information, transmitting target designation and controlling the compound's weapons in real time. A detachment of ships equipped with such a system acquires previously unthinkable opportunities.
It should be noted that since the collapse of the USSR, the Russian fleet has significantly lagged behind the navies of other maritime powers in replenishing the new generation of combat units and is now making up for lost time. Often this catch-up turns into a major breakthrough. So, today Russia has actually come to the creation of a unified family of warships of classes from corvette to destroyer, compatible for most of the main systems and differing in the number of installed weapons. The end-to-end unification of the BIUS on all promising projects of the 1st and 3rd ranks should provide the Russian fleet in the future with the possibilities of coordinating actions and controlling the available forces more serious than those of many navies of the leading states of the world.
Unavailable benefits
The capabilities of corvettes are obvious, but they can be fully realized only as part of detachments of warships capable of jointly solving serious tasks - from protecting navigation to attacking an enemy aircraft carrier. At the same time, the current pace of military shipbuilding in the Russian Federation still makes one doubt the imminent appearance of such units.
The "Guarding" corvette was laid down at the end of 2001, launched in the spring of 2006 and commissioned in February 2008, which in itself is long for a ship of this class, but understandable in Russia, whose industry was going through hard times. The second ship, according to the already worked out process, is usually built faster, but here the rule did not work: the laying of the "Smart" in May 2003 and the commissioning of the corvette, scheduled for July 2011, are eight years and three months apart.
Such time lags, when they are repeated, threaten to disrupt GPV-2020 in its naval section. In the next 10 years, Russia should receive at least 20 corvettes of the new project. There are tasks for them - from patrolling their waters to supporting large warships, the construction (and acquisition abroad!) Of which, in the absence of strong and numerous combat escort units, makes no sense.
For such a wide range of tasks, even 20 corvettes may simply not be enough, in connection with which voices are periodically heard now, insisting on an increase in the cost of building new ships. Russia really needs them: the extended maritime borders, combined with the remoteness of the main theaters of military operations, require a sufficiently strong fleet to defend them, capable of withstanding any enemy in its theater of operations. But no amount of money that the state can allocate for the construction of the fleet will not help if, as before, funding is carried out with a six-month delay, and our industry is unable to use the funds received in full.
Whether the situation will change, we will find out pretty soon. The third corvette of project 20380 - "Boyky" has already been launched. Launched in 2005, it has the potential to enter service faster than both of its predecessors. It remains to wait for the result.
