Like the head corvette "Guarding", transferred to the Navy in November 2007, "Soobrazitelny" inherited the names of Project 7U destroyers - ships designed by Soviet designers in the 1930s. and built at domestic shipyards. The destroyers, becoming the first serial surface ships built under the program of creating the "Big Fleet of the Land of the Soviets" and forming the basis of its surface forces in the pre-war years, fought heroically in the Baltic, the Black Sea and the North, leaving their glorious names in the history of the Russian Navy. The new "Savvy" - the third ship with this name, will take over the baton of the guards destroyer and the large anti-submarine ship of the Black Sea Fleet.
The creativity of the specialists of the St. Petersburg Central Maritime Design Bureau "Almaz", embodied in a multitude of combat boats and ships, which recently celebrated its 60th anniversary, has always been distinguished not only by the non-standard and novelty of the design solutions chosen for the implementation of the tasks, but also by the desire to maximize the use for placement weapons and weapons displacement limited by the strict requirements of the customer. In other words, the achievement of maximum combat effectiveness is strictly linked to the relatively small size of the ship.
The multipurpose corvettes designed by Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau, which by their commissioning began the revival of the Russian fleet after a decade and a half of stagnation, use the most advanced technologies of military shipbuilding, naval weapons and weapons. Serially built at two Russian shipbuilding enterprises in accordance with the approved state program, they are replacing several types of anti-submarine and missile ships that are outdated and have served their time limits.
The principle of modular zones incorporated in the concept of the ship's project allows to increase its combat effectiveness and operational qualities during the construction of the series by changing the composition of weapons, combat and technical means, and also provides for the possibility of using a different type and layout of the main power plant. This is partly already being implemented on corvettes under construction for the Russian Navy.
The export version of the ship - Project 20382 "Tiger" - has significant advantages over modern foreign counterparts, which are classified as corvettes.
In foreign military-technical practice, the term "corvette" is used quite widely, but there is no clear definition of this class of warships. Since the national navies have their own official classification of warships, in the open press corvettes are called corvettes, which are very different in terms of the composition of weapons and the tasks to be solved.
Corvettes often include both relatively large missile boats and patrol ships of the economic zone (OPV), which are usually designed according to commercial shipbuilding standards, but, if necessary, have the possibility of additional equipment (for example, MEKO A100RMN of the Malaysian Navy). On the other hand, there are examples when, for opportunistic reasons, larger ships are also classified as corvettes. So, the ships of the MEKO A200 project with a total displacement of about 3700 tons in the South African Navy are officially classified as corvettes.
Due to a significant increase in the cost of modern shipborne weapons systems compared to the cost of creating a "platform", as well as changes in the geopolitical situation, a number of fleets were reoriented to light frigates and corvettes as the basis of surface forces. The "rebirth" of corvettes was also due to the emergence and rapid improvement of relatively light effective weapons (anti-ship missiles - anti-ship missiles), which equated them in combat effectiveness with larger ships. Corvettes are especially attractive for countries that have long maritime borders and are forced to constantly maintain the naval strength of their navies in an amount sufficient to solve a variety of tasks.
The task of creating a multipurpose ship with the ability to effectively search and destroy submarines, while limiting the standard displacement of 1500-1700 tons, is the most difficult, since for this it is necessary to place on board a hydroacoustic complex of sufficient power and a temporary or permanent helicopter. The placement of a powerful sonar station in the under-keel fairing is very difficult, so foreign corvettes are equipped with small-sized GAS with a short range. Flexible extended towed antennas are not used, which significantly reduces the detection range of underwater targets. For the normal placement of an PLO helicopter and a complex of aviation technical means, the ship must have significantly larger dimensions and, consequently, the displacement. In addition, ships with a displacement of 1200-1500 tons cannot effectively use a helicopter in waves due to low seaworthiness.
For these objective reasons, there is a tendency to increase the displacement of multipurpose corvettes. In terms of their capabilities, they approach the ships of the "frigate" class, having a lower cost of construction and operation.
Modern complexes of high-precision weapons, means of illumination of the surface, underwater and air conditions, as well as the presence on board the helicopter reduce the priority of the high speed of the full speed of the ship and compensate for its decrease to 26-28 knots. Most corvettes (K130, Sigma, MEKO 100RMN) do not have gas turbines as part of the power plant, since a stroke of 26-28 knots can be provided with an easy-to-use and less expensive economical diesel unit.
It should be especially noted that the integrated use of all methods of reducing the ship's visibility by physical fields (the so-called stealth technologies) has so far been absent in serially built ships of the "corvette" class. French frigates of the La Fayette class and modifications created on their basis - ships of a much larger displacement (3700 tons). Ships of the Visby type (Sweden, displacement - 600 tons, length - 72.8 m), widely advertised as "inconspicuous corvettes", should be more correctly classified as large boats.
The main tasks of warships in wartime are the fight against surface ships and enemy vessels, the defeat of coastal targets, artillery support of amphibious assault forces, the search and destruction of submarines. Taking into account the qualitative renewal of the submarine forces of the fleets of states, in particular the Asia-Pacific region, the latter task is becoming more and more urgent.
It is obvious that the solution of this problem by the corvette "Tiger" will be an order of magnitude more effective than its foreign counterparts. This is ensured by a modern powerful digital SAC and a permanent-based heavy anti-submarine helicopter carrying the most advanced means of destruction of underwater targets.
With the support of amphibious operations, the Tiger's indisputable advantage is determined by the 100-mm automatic artillery installation, which ensures reliable destruction of both coastal and surface targets without spending very expensive cruise missiles for firing at ground targets. Artillery superiority can be decisive in naval combat as well. And the combat use of anti-ship missiles against surface ships at full range (over 200 km) is possible both with the use of a shipborne detection and target designation system, and with the help of a shipborne helicopter.
Finally, in the fight against an air enemy, the "Tiger" corvette will have no equal in its class - this task can be solved by an air defense system with a vertical missile launch. Its capabilities are much greater than the self-defense of a single ship.
Consideration of foreign analogues of the Russian "Tiger" (see table) shows that to date, a universal multipurpose ship of the "corvette" class with a displacement of about 2000 tons has not yet been created abroad, capable of effectively solving all the above tasks and characterized by the complex application of technologies to reduce the visibility of physical fields.
