Why Russia was forced to make a choice in favor of Project 11356 URO frigates

You can laugh indefinitely at the Great Maritime Power Ukraine, which is waging bloody battles in the vast expanses of the World Ocean from the Baltic to the Black Sea and from the North Atlantic to the sultry Indian Ocean with the fragile ships of the Russian aggressor, but today's story is about how it "sank" two the newest Russian frigates of the modified project 11356 of the "Burevestnik" type "Admiral Butakov" and "Admiral Istomin", without even going to sea.

The next one she will drown will be the frigate of the same project "Admiral Kornilov".

Heavy frigates - project 22350

It all started back in 2014. More precisely, no, in 2014, together with the annexation of Crimea to Russia, everything was already over, at least for our frigates of the admiral's series. They became almost the main victims of this undeclared war between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. And it all began bravura - on February 1, 2006, at the St. Petersburg shipyard Severnaya Verf, the lead ship of the admiral's series (project 22350, the so-called heavy frigate, with a displacement of 4 tons) "Admiral of the Soviet Union Fleet Gorshkov" was laid down on 500 February 15. It was the first large surface combat ship laid down at the Russian shipyards after the collapse of the USSR. In total, over the next 20-20 years, it was planned to build up to 2011 frigates, the base for which was to be the ships of this project. It was assumed that they would be part of all four fleets of the Russian Navy. However, due to a number of reasons, the execution of the order slowed down significantly, in connection with which, starting in 11356, the parallel construction of Project 3 frigates for the Russian Navy, which had previously been considered purely export (the so-called light frigates, with a displacement of 620 tons), was launched.


Help: Project 22350 frigates of the "Admiral Gorshkov" type - a series of Russian universal multipurpose frigates of the 1st rank with guided missile weapons (URO) of the far sea and ocean zones. They were supposed to form the basis of the naval groupings of the Russian Navy in the Arctic zone, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea (note, about Syria, Sudan and the presence of the Russian flag in the Indian Ocean, then no one even thought how quickly everything changed since 2015!).

At the moment, there are two heavy frigates of this project in service - "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov" (since 2018 as part of the Northern Fleet, built for 12,5 years since 2006) and "Admiral of the Fleet Kasatonov" (from 2020 as part of SF, was built a little less - 10,5 years from 2009). Another ship of this project was launched in 2020 and is preparing for mooring tests - "Admiral Golovko" (laid down in 2012, assigned to the Northern Fleet, at the end of 2022, if all goes well, transfer to the customer is expected). The fourth ship of this series "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Isakov" (laid down in 2013) is preparing to launch this year (delivery to the customer is scheduled for the end of 2023). Four more "admirals" assigned to the Pacific Fleet are being built in the same place in St. Petersburg at PJSC Shipyard Severnaya Verf - these are Admiral Amelko, Admiral Chichagov, Admiral Yumashev and Admiral Spiridonov (the first two were laid in 2019, the second a year later - in 2020, delivery to the customer is scheduled for 2025-2026, respectively). They, unlike the four previous "admirals", will receive more powerful weapons in the form of 32 vertical launchers of the UKSK complex (3S14 universal shipborne rifle complex), which is twice as much as on the first four ships. And finally, on August 25, 2020, at the Army-2020 forum, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation signed a contract for the laying of two more frigates of Project 2021 in 22350 (the same Severnaya Verf will be built, the serial numbers are already known, the name is not yet) ... There will be 10 heavy "admirals" in total. So far ten. In the future, the Russian Navy plans to build ships of the far sea zone of this class already according to the modernized project 22350M with an increased displacement of up to 8 tons (work on the project is underway).

Light frigates - project 11356

The hitch with the launch of heavy Project 22350 frigates into the series (the development and testing of the lead ship of this series "Admiral Gorshkov" was very difficult) gave rise to the reincarnation of the export project 11356 for the needs of the Russian fleet (which received the letter "P" for this). The project 11356R itself is a modernized project of the export frigate 11356 of the Talvar type, created for the Indian Navy, which in turn is a further development of the project of the patrol ships 1135 and 1135M Burevestnik, as well as the border patrol ships 11351 Nereus. During the period from 1968 to 1992, the USSR Navy and the Marine Units of the USSR KGB Border Troops received a total of 39 ships of various modifications of this project. Their excellent seaworthiness and good living conditions won the rightful sympathy of the sailors. It is for this reason that the Indian side, when choosing a ship that was supposed to form the basis of its Navy, in 1997 made a choice in favor of the time-tested modernized patrol ship, although it was offered more modern at that time, but requiring improvement options (Project 12441 "Novik" and project 11540 "Hawk").

It just so happened that initially ordered in only three units for a foreign customer, the ships of Project 11356 eventually became one of the most numerous series of warships in the post-Soviet history of Russian shipbuilding. At the moment, the series includes 12 units, 9 of which have already been built and serve in the Indian and Russian fleets. Not distinguished by any innovative solutions or the latest weapons, these ships are remarkable for their reliable and proven design at a relatively small size and cost.

Now in the Indian Navy six frigates of this series are in service - F40 Talvar (Sword), F43 Trishup (Trident), F44 Tabar (Ax), F45 Tag (Saber) ), F50 "Tarkash" ("Quiver") and F51 "Tricand" ("Bow"). The Russian Navy also has ships of this project - Admiral Grigorovich (in the Black Sea Fleet since March 2016), Admiral Essen (in the Black Sea Fleet since June 2016) and Admiral Makarov (in the Black Sea Fleet since December 2017 years), all three frigates have already marked in Syria. Three more "admirals" - "Admiral Butakov", "Admiral Istomin" and "Admiral Kornilov" in varying degrees of readiness froze on the stocks of the Kaliningrad PSZ "Yantar". There is only one reason - the lack of power plants produced by the Ukrainian side, which it refused to supply in connection with the events of 2014. More on this in the next article, and now I will finish with the Indian contract.

The ships of this project became the first representatives of the Indian fleet, built using stealthof technologies and equipped with a vertical missile launch facility. And if the first three were equipped with the Club-N anti-ship missile system, consisting of a 3C-14 launcher designed for ammunition of 8 missiles, then on the second three the Club missiles were replaced with 8 supersonic cruise missiles "BrahMos" of Russian-Indian development, which are located in the same vertical launch facility. The Indian side was very pleased with the ships they received. They have performed excellently since their introduction in 2002. The senior command of the Indian Navy believes that these are the most advanced ships in service with the Indian Navy, with the right combination of anti-aircraft, anti-submarine and anti-ship defense capabilities.

Project 11356 URO frigates are a quiet horror for our enemies. Cheap and very angry!

Reference: Project 11356R Burevestnik frigates (NATO codified Krivak V) are a series of Russian rank 2 multipurpose frigates with guided missile weapons (URO) in the far sea and ocean zones. Initially, their prototype patrol ships of project 1135 and 1135M "Burevestnik", as well as their modifications 11352 and 11353 (according to NATO codification Krivak I, II, III and IV) were designed as BOD (large anti-submarine ships) for active ASW (anti-submarine defense). But at the request of the Indian side, they were transformed into multipurpose URO frigates. In the same capacity, they joined the composition of the Russian Navy.


But, which is especially important and to which I draw your special attention, both in the Indian version 11356 and in the version 11356R for the Russian Navy, the developers followed the path of simplifying and reducing the cost of the weapons used. And if the Indians were initially guided by the creation of a budget version of the URO frigate (and now they are not abandoning it), then we were forced to do this when the project of the heavy frigate 22350, equipped with the Poliment-Redoubt (namely due to problems with it and bringing it to mind, the project of the light frigate 11356R was launched).

The main reason for our haste became clear in 2015, when, to the horror of Obama, on the heads of his protégés of the IS terrorist organization (banned in the Russian Federation), who have been nightmaring the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria since 2011, fair retaliation fell on the heads of our 26 rusty winged missiles "Caliber", which, according to experts from Langley, should not have flown a distance of more than 300, well, a maximum of 450 km, and they, starting from the water area of ​​the Caspian Sea from some kind of inflatable mattresses, which could not even be seen through the periscope, flew 1,5, XNUMX thousand km and fell on the heads of unsuspecting warriors of Islam, sending them to a meeting with the Almighty along a shortened route and breaking off all the buzz for their curator from Washington. This came as a complete surprise to the heavily tanned leader of the American pale-faced Comanches, because all this time his advisers were assuring that the Russians did not have weapons with such a range that could threaten America. There are no weapons or their carriers equipped for the "sea launch" of cruise missiles (cruise missiles), and only rusty submarines remained from the entire fleet. You know the result, the warriors of Islam communicate with Allah, the Langley students went to school to study where the Caspian Sea is, and Obama, cursing the day when he sat down at the wheel of his vacuum cleaner, retired and began writing memoirs under the general title “ I and the Genius of Villainy Putin. " The genius of villainy needed a large number of carriers of sea-based "Caliber" (with an extended range) and he got them.

Long before these events, the General Staff of the Russian Navy revised the concept of forming its own Navy, deliberately avoiding the creation of expensive BNK (large surface ships) of the 1st and 2nd rank in favor of cheap MRK URO of the 3rd rank (small missile boats with guided missile weapons ) projects 22800 "Karakurt" and 21631 "Buyan-M". It was these ships, being and moving along the inland seas and reservoirs of the Russian Federation (including rivers!), Being unattainable for the enemy's missile defense system, and should, according to the plan of the staff of the General Staff of the Russian Navy, inflict the very blow of a terrible force that our enemies are so afraid of. The light URO frigate of project 11356R was called to serve the same tasks, having excellent time-tested seaworthiness and the ability to work in the ocean and far sea zone (in contrast to the MRK, which are not intended for this, whose destiny is coastal navigation in the near sea zone), it and had to bring our weapon of retaliation to those parts of the world where our little MRK was ordered to travel. And given the cost of the project, it can be summarized that the Russians again defeated the West not by number (money), but by skill (and ingenuity).

Disadvantages of the project 11356R

And do not be confused that this project is built mainly on technologies and weapons systems of the 1990s, which, according to the customers in the Russian Navy, should have accelerated the construction and commissioning of ships. Moreover, I will say that even in comparison with the Indian project 11356 Talwar, some of the systems were removed, for example, the 11356R lost its towed GAS. The other part was replaced by simplified counterparts, in particular, an outdated keel GAS was installed (the maximum detection range of the MGK-335 is 12 km, versus 15 km for the not most modern APSOH in the Indian version and 18-45 km for the Zarya GAS on projects 20380/22350) , not the most modern air defense missile systems "Kashtan" were replaced with even older AK-630M. The means of PLO (torpedo tubes) and anti-torpedo defense RBU-6000 (RGB-60, 90R, 90R1) have excess weight and lower performance characteristics, for example, in comparison with the "Packet-NK" complex. And the 3S90M + 9M317M air defense missile system is less perfect in terms of performance characteristics and weight in comparison with the Redut air defense missile system on frigates of Project 22350. Not to mention that the Demand-M CIUS installed on 11356R frigates is also inferior in automation capabilities to the Sigma CIUS frigates 22350 and corvettes of project 20380.

This is all nonsense compared to the most important - Project 11356R frigates were equipped with the Caliber-NK missile system. And although the vertical launcher 3S14, installed on the ships of projects 11356R and 21631 (MRK Buyan-M), has reduced capabilities and only allows the placement of missiles of the Caliber 3M14 family, i.e. does not allow the placement of anti-ship missiles (anti-ship missiles) "Onyx", unlike similar UKSK on ships of projects 20385 (multipurpose URO corvettes of the 2nd rank), 22350 (heavy URO frigates of the 1st rank) and 1144.2M (TARK, heavy nuclear missile the cruiser of the 1st rank of the project "Orlan"), but it solves its task to carry the weapon of mass destruction to the enemy's control centers cheaply and angrily. This project served these tasks and therefore the blow that our non-brothers inflicted on it was so painful and tangible for us.

By the way, their only ship - the flagship and pride of the Navy, the frigate Getman Sagaidachny also belongs to this project, more precisely to its prototype - the SKR (patrol ship) of project 11351 "Nereus", laid down at the Kerch plant "Zaliv" in 1990 by order of the Marine forces of the Border Troops of the KGB of the USSR and inherited by Nezalezhnaya after the collapse of the Union. True, it can be called a frigate with a big stretch, because it does not carry missile weapons. But, nevertheless, this did not prevent him from sinking two of our newest frigates of project 11356P and inflicting holes on four more "admirals" who did not wait for the Ukrainian engines. But more on that next time.