What the naval forces now represent, perhaps no one will undertake to say. Especially after the annexation of Crimea by Russia. According to data from open sources, after the action in Crimea, nine out of 18 main warships of the Ukrainian Navy and nine out of 43 auxiliary ships came under Russian control. However, the assessment of the quantitative composition will say little, and it seems that even the Ukrainian leadership does not know for sure about the technical condition, as evidenced by the findings of inspections of the condition of ships and vessels.
The flagship of the Ukrainian fleet, Hetman Sagaidachny, was commissioned in 1993. This, we recall, is a representative of the family of patrol ships of Project 1135, which began to be put into operation (then, of course, within the framework of the Soviet fleet) since 1970. Despite significant obsolescence, the Getman Sagaidachny itself is not the oldest ship in the post-Soviet space. At the same time, back in 2017, it once again failed due to engine breakdown: and it happened right after the repair.
There is no point in assessing the condition of other relatively large (by the standards of Ukraine, of course) ships. The small anti-submarine ship "Vinnitsa", for example, was commissioned in 1976 …
The only thing that can really be used for its intended purpose, without great risks of losing a significant number of people, is combat boats. However, Ukraine also went wrong with the "mosquito fleet".
A boat instead of a cruiser
There was a time when Ukraine threatened to commission the Soviet missile cruiser "Ukraine", located on the territory of the Nikolaev shipyard. The ship has already turned de facto into scrap metal, so it is remembered less and less often, although even the newly elected Vladimir Zelensky was photographed against its background.
The armored boat "Gyurza" was supposed to be a real answer to sea calls. In total, in different years, two significantly different versions were developed and built in small series:
- project 58150 "Gyurza" (two units were built for Uzbekistan);
- project 58155 "Gyurza-M" (built six units for the Ukrainian Navy).
The boat was developed by the specialists of the Nikolaev Research and Design Center of Shipbuilding. The construction of two boats of Project 58150 for the Coast Guard of Uzbekistan was financed by the United States within the framework of the assistance program.
Then came the turn of the "Gyurza-M", which has a total displacement of 50 tons. The armored boat was created using stealth technology: the ship received inclined beveled hull contours, which in theory should make it less visible to enemy radars. The first "Gyurza-M" - BK-02 "Ackerman" - was commissioned in 2016, a total of six such boats were built. True, last year two of them - BK-01 "Berdyansk" and BK-06 "Nikopol" - were detained by Russia. By the way, in Russia, the attitude towards development is traditionally "restrained".
Big problems of small ships
What do they think about boats in Ukraine itself? Recently, the Dumskaya edition, with reference to the deputy chief of staff of the Ukrainian naval forces for European integration, Captain First Rank Andrei Ryzhenko, wrote a very interesting material. “Realities have shown that the boat“Gyurza-M”cannot perform tasks in the Black Sea with waves of three points or more and has very limited fire capabilities (the anti-tank complex planned for installation was not installed in the end),” Ryzhenko said.
At the same time, apparently, even the concept itself is considered by military experts to be a utopia. “The mistake was that they tried to make a military sea boat out of a police river boat,” said Andrey Ryzhenko. The military also mentioned the project of Ukrainian missile boats of the "Lan" type, adding, however, that at the moment it is outdated.
This is a rather harsh statement, especially if we recall the position of the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Navy, Vice-Admiral Igor Voronchenko, who has a slightly different view of the Lan-class artillery boats. “We need small boats of the coastal zone capable of holding back the exits of groups in the northwestern part of the Black Sea. The basis of the combat potential should be a Lan-class missile boat, which will be a deterrent to the aggressor in the Black Sea, the admiral said in 2019.
Earlier, we will remind, there were reports that by 2018 the Ukrainian fleet should replenish three missile boats of the Lan project. However, then the date for the commissioning of the first boat was shifted from 2018 to 2019 and, apparently, this is not the last postponement.
Moreover, as of 2018, the contract for the construction of the Lan-type missile boat between the Ministry of Defense and the manufacturer Kuznitsa on Rybalsky has not yet been signed.
In general, according to the data announced in the Ukrainian media, the "Doe" was seen as something like a conditional "wunderwaffe": provided it is armed with the newest Ukrainian anti-ship missile "Neptune", made on the basis of the X-35, well-known in Russia. Now the military does not have such a missile, as well as the boats of the Lan project: perhaps from the Vietnamese, who previously ordered a batch of seven such ships for the needs of their fleet. According to the latest Ukrainian media reports, Neptune is expected in 2020.
The future pride of the fleet?
Even more doubtful are the prospects for the most ambitious project of Ukrainian shipbuilding - the promising corvette of Project 58250, which was laid back in 2011 and which will never be completed. And it's not a fact that it will ever be completed at all. As of June 2018, the budget of Ukraine did not have funds for the construction of a corvette, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Igor Voronchenko, announced a possible point of no return for the Ukrainian shipbuilding industry.
The latest events that take place around the project 58250 corvette are more like throwing from side to side. In the summer of 2019, the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Stepan Poltorak proposed to President Volodymyr Zelensky to complete the construction of the promising corvette of Project 58250 Vladimir the Great at other capacities, namely, at the 61 Communards Shipyard. “The corps is 80% ready, and the corvette as a whole is 32% ready,” the Minister of Defense said.
And in October, Sergei Krivko, chief designer of the state enterprise Experimental and Design Center for Shipbuilding, noted that the corvette project needs updating. This is similar to what is happening around the Russian "long-term construction". And in fact, neither the political leadership nor the designer simply know what to do with the ship. Refusal looks like the most reasonable decision: there is no money anyway, and there won't be any. On the other hand, this threatens with a loss of rating and a drop in the authority of the authorities, at least among the military.
If we abstract from the plans of the distant future, then we must admit that now the Ukrainian fleet can exist only with the support of the West, which will supply weapons, ships and train crews. By the way, on October 22, 2019, two Island-class patrol boats delivered from the USA were moored at the military pier of the Practical harbor of Odessa: P190 "Slavyansk" and P191 "Starobelsk". Previously, they were transferred to Ukraine from the US Coast Guard. The transfer took place free of charge, but Ukraine pays for the re-entry and preparation of the ships for operation.
