The Russian Navy will receive the first frigate of Project 22350 in 2011. The lead ship of the series "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov" has already been launched and during this year, after passing a series of tests, it will be included in the fleet. Universal frigates of this class will be included in all 4 fleets of Russia and will become the main surface ship of the ocean zone for many years to come. The construction of the second ship of this class, Admiral of the Fleet Kasatonov, is currently underway. In total, the Russian fleet's need for such ships is estimated at 20 ships.
The tender for the construction of this ship was planned to be announced back in 2002, the following year a preliminary design was developed, but the ship did not get into the state defense order, so the tender took place only in 2005. The enterprise that won the tender was the St. Petersburg shipbuilding enterprise Severnaya Verf.
The laying down of the lead frigate of Project 22350, named after Admiral Gorshkov, took place on February 1, 2006, and the launching took place on October 29, 2010. She became the first large combat surface ship laid down at domestic shipyards over the past 15 years. In total, it is planned to transfer up to 20 such vessels to the fleet within 15-20 years. The cost of the lead frigate was 400-420 million dollars, taking into account the installation of the latest types of weapons on the ship, which are now in development, its cost will increase to 500 million dollars.
Design
The Project 22350 frigate is a typical ship with a long-wing design with a solid superstructure, which is made using composite materials based on carbon fibers and polyvinyl chloride (these materials reduce the level of the secondary radar field of the ship by absorbing and scattering radio waves). Thanks to its original architecture and the use of composite materials (stealth technology), the effective scattering surface of the ship has been reduced, which makes it less radar and optically visible.
Throughout most of the hull, from the bow compartments with ammunition to the engine room and aft clearance, the ship has a double bottom. It is planned to install new stabilizers on the ship, which will allow the use of weapons and equipment without any restrictions in seas of up to 4-5 points. All ammunition for the frigate's guided missiles will be stored in vertical launchers. The total displacement of the ship will be 4500 tons.
Power plant
The main power plant (GEM) on the ship is a diesel-gas turbine plant, the total capacity of which is 65 thousand hp. The power plant includes two diesel engines 10D49 with a power of 5200 hp each. and two M90FR gas turbine engines with a capacity of 27,500 hp each. each. The maximum speed of the ship reaches 29 knots.
Armament
The frigate of project 22350 will receive a complex of weapons, including guided anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, an artillery installation and radio-technical weapons. In the bow of the frigate hull there are two universal firing shipborne complexes 3S14U1 (two standard modules with eight cells in each), which are designed to store and launch 16 Onyx 3M55 anti-ship missiles, or anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles of another Caliber-NKE family (3M-54, 3M14, 91RTE2).
Anti-submarine weapons are represented by two onboard complexes "Medvedka-2", 4 missiles for each complex.
The frigate's artillery armament includes 130 mm. artillery mount A-192 with a firing range of 22 km, with a rate of fire of 30 rounds per minute. This installation has wide firing angles (170/80 °). The range of available ammunition makes it possible to engage ground, sea and air targets, and the new Puma 5P-10 fire control radar system is capable of processing fired targets in a multichannel mode. Not far from the helicopter hangar, it is planned to place two combat modules ZRAK "Broadsword", one on each side.
There is still no exact data on the composition of the ship's anti-aircraft armament. Although initially there was information about the installation on the frigate of the medium-range anti-aircraft missile system "Shtil-1" (which is a modernized version of the "Uragan" air defense system in the version with a vertical launch, which in turn originates from the army air defense system "Cube"), but then there were reports that the ship would receive a more advanced air defense system "Polyment-Redut", which would be placed in the bow of the ship in various versions (an eight-cell module for 8 missiles with a range of 120 km or 32 anti-aircraft missiles with a range of 40 km, or 128 short-range self-defense missiles). Additionally, each ship has a helicopter hangar for 1 Ka-27 or Ka-32 helicopter.
