Incredibly, it happened. We have good news today regarding the Navy. And not just good ones, but very good ones.
MOSCOW, April 9. / TASS /. Two Project 22350 frigates and two Project 11711 large landing ships for the Russian Navy will be laid down on April 23 at shipyards in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad. This was announced on Tuesday by the head of the Russian Defense Ministry Sergei Shoigu.
"On April 23, the laying of ships of the far sea zone will take place - two frigates of project 22350 at the Severnaya Verf shipyard in St. Petersburg and two large landing ships of project 11711 at the Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad," he said at a conference call in the military department.
Intensive rumors about the laying of new frigates of Project 22350 have been circulating for a long time, since the fall. Others also said that some of the ships would have an increased number of vertical launchers for missiles. And if the second still remains unconfirmed information, then the first has just received official confirmation, as they say, "from the very top."
I must say that this decision is more than just a decision to build a couple more ships. And more than knocking money out of the budget to build a couple more ships.
This is a sign that it is possible (not a fact, but now it can already be!) Of a monstrous negative trend in military shipbuilding, when more or less adequate projects were cut one by one for the sake of ephemeral phantoms - broken.
A year ago, the situation looked different. On the agenda was the project, now known as the 22350M - a large ship with a fully gas turbine power plant, surpassing 22350 both in size and displacement, and in the number of weapons on board and in electronic weapons. He, in principle, is still on the agenda.
But a year ago, it was considered the right approach to nail down a series of old ships immediately after they decided to build new ones.
Earlier in the article "It's Time to Learn from the Enemy," the approaches that the Americans profess in their naval construction were analyzed. And from the point of view of their approaches, which led to the emergence of the most powerful navies in the world, our approach - to stop building the "resulting" series and passively wait for readiness to lay a new one - is wrong. It is impossible to build a powerful fleet like that, it can only be built by acting the other way around. But in the Navy they stubbornly continued to stand their ground.
Of course, things were not easy with 22350. The anti-aircraft missile system did not work. It was not possible to build a domestic-made power plant instead of a Ukrainian one. And then there were hundreds of minor flaws, which together made the operation of the ship impossible. But as soon as it became clear that the air defense system would still be completed, and the production of the power plant in Russia was fully established, then from the point of view of the correct approach to naval construction, the only right decision was to continue laying the frigates of project 22350 until project 22350M was ready for laying, and only then it was necessary to abandon them.
In the "intermediate" variant - to build at least a full-fledged brigade of six ships. This would also be, in general, quite a sensible decision, and that is why it was almost impossible to believe in it.
But it eventually happened. A couple of new frigates will be laid down very soon - on April 23 this year.
What "died in the forest"? How did it happen that the Ministry of Defense and the Navy suddenly took the right path? It is difficult to judge this, but perhaps we will find out about it someday.
Project 22350. Far from perfect. The reason for this is that it is an attempt to "shove" into the hull of a frigate - in fact, an escort ship - weapons and weapons inherent, rather, a destroyer. As a result, the fleet received a ship with a disproportionately powerful weapon for a frigate, powerful air defense, but at the same time only one helicopter (this is not enough for operations against submarines), an insufficient set of anti-submarine weapons (there is no RBU, the "Package-NK" complex has been unsuccessfully implemented), too short range of economic progress, and too low its speed.
But one must understand that the domestic shipbuilding industry at a certain point did not have a choice, which means that the Navy did not have it either. As soon as Russia lost (temporarily) the ability to build large warships, it was necessary to "push" such a ship into the volume of a frigate.
And it turned out, although not perfect, and not optimal, but quite good for itself. Whatever imbalances there are in the 22350 project, this is a very strong warship, capable of fighting surface forces, aviation, shore, and, to a limited extent, submarines.
And this is a turn to a normal approach - instead of waiting for the "crane in the sky" Russia firmly holds the "tit in hand" … but it does not retreat from attempts to grab the crane.
As soon as 22350M goes into production, bookmarks of 22350 can be stopped. By that time, you will still have to comprehend the need for a massive, simple and cheap ship of the far sea zone, in the TFR of the XXI century, which will be simpler and cheaper than 22350, preferably at times, but so far all this is not there, we must continue to build 22350. And then, that such a decision prevailed is a very good sign for our fleet. Frankly speaking, the expected was something completely different …
The construction of two new BDK 11711 should also be considered positive news. Currently, Russian BDKs are actively working on the delivery of military supplies to the Syrian Arab Republic in the framework of the so-called "Syrian Express". This operation has already cost the landing ships a large share of their resource. Ships wear out intensively and will soon require massive repairs. At the same time, the main BDK of the Russian Navy, project 775, is a Polish-built ship, it is difficult to repair it in our conditions, and in Poland there is already no industrial cooperation on these ships.
As a result, their intensive wear on the Novorossiysk-Tartus line will in the near future lead to a collapse in the number of the already insufficient amphibious forces, and most likely there will be no opportunity to "bring back to life" all existing ships.
In such conditions, 11711 becomes an uncontested option - no matter how bad this ship is (and it is bad!), The alternative choice is the "Fleet without ships". And, fortunately, healthy forces won here too.
11711 is a problem ship. He has irrational hull contours, which does not allow the full potential of the power plant on the ship to be realized. He is conceptually not thought out on the one hand, and weak as a "paratrooper" on the other. The helicopters are extremely unsuccessfully located on it, and the small runway does not allow them to be placed at the same time. But this is our only landing ship that can be laid down and built "here and now." And here you have to repeat the history of the frigates and build, build, build. Of course, this is a half-measure, we need a new concept of amphibious assault, in principle, and a new ship for it, but it's better this way than nothing.
In addition to the news mentioned, the Minister of Defense said something else:
"At the same time at Severnaya Verf, the docking of large blocks of the corvette of the project 20386 will be carried out. It will be named in honor of the military brig of the Russian fleet" Mercury ", whose feat will mark 190 years in May," the minister added.
He specified that frigates, landing ships and a frigate "are planned to enter the Navy by 2025."
Let's take a closer look.
The author at one time was the initiator of a campaign to bring this project to clean water. For example, see the article “Worse than a crime. The construction of project 20386 corvettes is a mistake "), or new material co-authored with the captain of the third rank in reserve M. A. Klimov, - article "Corvette 20386. Continuation of the scam." A short time after the release of the last of them "from above" rumors were heard about the ongoing deep processing of this project and the replacement of the chief designer. Well, this will not make the project really useful, but maybe it will at least become realizable …
There is also an interesting moment with the name of the under-construction frigate. Initially, it was named "Daring". It was under this name that the ship was laid down, it was and is on its mortgage board.
However, as you know, recently a leapfrog began in the Navy with the renaming of ships. Thus, a series of small missile ships of project 22800, with the names of the "bad weather division", was renamed into a part of small towns, for example, the Uragan MRK, the lead ship of the series, was renamed "Mytishchi". Behind these renaming is the newly revived Main Military-Political Directorate of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, headed by General Kartapolov, acting with the connivance of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Korolev.
Now the political officers have reached the "Daring" one. The press service of Severnaya Verf has already confirmed the renaming of the ship, which is reported today by FLOTPROM.
Noteworthy is the construction time of the building. The headquarters 20386 was laid down in October 2016, and construction began in November 2018. For two years the mortgage section was lying around somewhere. They promise to dock all sections of the hull on the same day when two new frigates are laid down - on April 23rd.
This is, in general, a depressing pace, although it is possible that Severnaya Verf will be able to accelerate somewhat.
But the most important news related to "Daring" - "Mercury" is different. When the project was just starting, it was planned to start building a second ship of the same in 2018. This did not happen then, and now it has not happened now, and this absence of an event is also in a sense an event, and also strictly good. Such is the news.
Having announced the laying of four new ships, Sergei Shoigu left room for intrigue. The fact is that the bookmarks of new ships for the Navy this year were announced by V. V. Putin in his message to the Federal Assembly. And V. V. Putin about five ships. And so far four will be laid.
What will be the latest news from the series? Which ship will be laid down fifth this year? A little later, of course, we will find out this too, the President in such a situation would not rush into words. We can only hope that it will be some kind of useful ship for the Navy, and not a "second run" on the rake, as the second 20386 is visible. However, this option is becoming less and less likely.
One way or another, a ray of light flashed through the dark kingdom. For the first time in many years, the Department of Defense has made a correct and smart decision that runs counter to all cumulative "experience." This is certainly very good news that many have been waiting for.
The best in a very long period. Let's hope it wasn't the last.
