ST.PETERSBURG. March 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The Talwar frigate built at the local Baltiysky Zavod shipyard for India will be handed over to the customer in May 2002, the project's chief builder Vladimir Dolgushin said on Tuesday.
The frigate passed state tests in the Baltic Sea from February 8 to 15, fully confirming all design specifications. Its surface-to-air missile systems and artillery were tested at the Baltiysk naval base in the Kalimingrad region and at Baltic Fleet proving ranges.
Earlier, commander of the vessel and chairman of the state acceptance commission Rear Admiral Alexander Alexandrov said that the armament test program had been implemented in full and the results were generally positive.
The frigate is under revision at the moment, Dolgushin said. Preparations for the training of the Indian crew are in progress. The training will have two stages, the shore stage lasting for 15 days and the naval stage for 10 days. The Indian crew has arrived in Russia and is taking a theoretical course in St. Petersburg. About 180 people will be included in the crew.
Pre-transfer tests of the vessel will start in late April or early May. They are likely to go alongside with the crew training. Live firing of on-board armament will take place during the tests.
The share of imported equipment on the frigate amounts to two to three percent, Dolgushin said.
Russia is to build two more frigates, the Trishul and the Tabar, for the Indian Navy. A Russian crew will move to the Trishul on April, and the vessel will embark for sea trials in late May. Sea trials of the Tabar will start in late Sempember.
The three frigates are to be transferred to the customer by May 2003.
Project 11356 was developed by the Severnoye projecting and design bureau. It is an export-oriented variant of a Russian guard ship. The frigate has a displacement of 4,000t and speed of 30 knots and is capable of accomplishing a wide scale of missions in the ocean, primarily, finding and eliminating submarines and large surface ships.
The frigate is armed with a new Club attack anti-ship system with vertical launch of missiles, as well as with the RBU-6000 jet bomb launcher and two Kashtan SAM systems. The vessel is fitted with the new A-190E 100mm artillery system with the rate of fire of 80 rounds per minute. The system can fire at two anti- ship missiles, naval or aerial targets simultaneously. The frigate can carry an anti-submarine helicopter as well.