Introducing the RFS Soobrazitelny
2010-04-04
Posted by: badanov
I saw this news courtesy of Free Republic,the news being the Russian Navy just launched a second corvette in this class March 31st.
I did say earlier that the Astrakhan had the heaviest armament of any modern Russian corvette, but this vessel, also classed as a corvette has much heavier armament.
Ilya Kramnik from RIA Novosti, disputes this vessel's classification as a corvettes,arguing:
Although with a gross tonnage of 2,000 tons this ship meets the classification criteria for that class of vessel, it far exceeds it in terms of firepower. Eight anti-ship missiles, a deck-based helicopter, a wide array of sonar and anti-submarine equipment, a 100mm gun, and an impressive complement of close-range air-defense systems all led experts to consider it more of a frigate, the next stage up in naval classification.
That's what I thought when I first looked at this ship's armament and displacement: 4,000 tons with three different classes of antiship and antiaircrft missiles, as well as three different classes of tubed artillery.
Another argument for the reclassification was the placement of a number of electronics aboard this vessel giving it similar capabilities to the US Navy's AEGIS system, such as what is on the US Ticonderoga class missile cruiser, a much heavier ship class displacing almost 10,000 tons.
It would depend on the actual role of the ship, which given its weight and firepower would place it well forward of an advancing naval line, in the outer ring to deal with incoming air and missile threats as well as dealing an initial punch against surface vessels.
It has no primary combat duty outside of escort and fleet protection; it would not survive a stand up fight against other frigates.
The Russian navy has plans for 20 of these vessels over the next ten years, similar to the 20 planned within four hears for the heavier and more capable Admiral Gorshkov frigate clss.
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