MOSCOW. Feb 7 (Interfax) - The Admiral Golovko, a new frigate armed with Kalibr cruise missiles, will join the Russian Northern Fleet by the end of 2023, while the Merkury corvette will become part of the Black Sea Fleet, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.
"It is planned that the Admiral Golovko frigate will join the Northern Fleet this year, while the Merkury corvette will enter into the surface component of the Black Sea Fleet," the ministry said.
Russian Navy Commander Nikolai Yevmenov was briefed by the administration of the Severnaya Verf shipyard and heads of relative departments of the Navy command on the course of trials of the Admiral Golovko frigate and the Merkury corvette.
Yevmenov learned that the Admiral Golovko frigate of Project 22350 was undergoing Phase III trials in the Baltic Sea. "The serviceability of the frigate's artillery, air defense weapons and their control systems, radio-technical equipment and communication devices has been checked. The Merkury corvette is going through the final stage of trials at the Baltic Fleet ranges," the ministry said.
A working meeting on the construction of surface ships, chaired by Yevmenov, "underlined the importance of effective operation of the system servicing new ships of the frigate and corvette classes," the ministry said. "The 51st Central Design and Technological Institute of Ship Repair is the lead organization in charge of repair and technical documentation for ships of such projects," it said.
The Admiral Golovko frigate is the third ship of Project 22350 built by Severnaya Verf. The lead and first serial frigates of the project, the Admiral Gorshkov and the Admiral Kasatonov, are part of the Northern Fleet's missile carrier formation. According to open sources, frigates of Project 22350 employ stealth technology and are designed for combat operations in distant oceanic zones. They are meant to hit surface ships, convoys and amphibious units, to search for and destroy submarines and ground targets, and to provide air, anti-submarine and missile defense of ships and vessels. They are able to deter airstrikes within naval formations and on their own.
The ships are armed with a 130mm A-192 artillery system, a Redut air defense missile system and launchers of 16 Oniks or Kalibr-NK anti-ship rockets designed by Almaz-Antey. Their anti-submarine weapon is Paket-NK. They also carry a Kamov Ka-27 anti-submarine helicopter onboard.
The Merkury is a guided missile corvette, the fifth ship of Project 20380. It is tasked with patrolling close and distant sea zones and fighting surface ships, submarines and aircraft of the enemy.