Steregushchiy-class corvette


The Steregushchiy class, Russian designation Project 20380, is the newest class of corvettes being built for the Russian Navy. Designed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau, subsequent vessels were built to an improved design, incorporating the Poliment-Redut SAM system. The ship full displacement and dimensions are large for a corvette, thus it is designated as a frigate by NATO. The Steregushchiy class has been further developed into the and Project 20386 subclasses. The export variant is known as Project 20382 Tigr.

History

The ships of the Steregushchiy class are multipurpose corvettes, designed to replace the. Such ships are used for littoral zone operations, engagement of enemy submarines and surface ships, and gun support of landing operations. The first batch built at the Severnaya Verf shipyard in St. Petersburg consists of four ships. A second building line has been started at Komsomolsk. The lead ship of this second batch was named.
The Russian Navy has publicly announced that they expect to buy at least 30 of these ships, for all four major fleets.
According to Jane's Naval Forces News, the first vessel was commissioned on 14 November 2007.
An additional order of 10 corvettes was under consideration in the late 2019, according to the Deputy Commander of Pacific Fleet Igor Korolev. The ships were to be laid down at Amur Shipyard and to be commissioned into the Pacific fleet.

Design

The Steregushchiy-class corvettes have a steel hull and composite material superstructure, with a bulbous bow and nine watertight subdivisions. They have a combined bridge and command centre, and space and weight provision for eight SS-N-25 missiles. Stealth technology was widely used during construction of the ships, as well as 21 patents and 14 new computer programs. Newest physical field reduction solutions were applied too. As a result, designers considerably reduced the ship's radar signature thanks to hull architecture and fire-resistant radar-absorbent fiberglass applied in tophamper's design.
The Kashtan CIWS on the first ship was replaced in subsequent vessels by 12 Redut VLS cells containing 9M96E medium-range SAMs of the S-400 system. SS-N-27 will be fitted to a larger domestic version, Project 20385.
The export version known as Project 20382 Tigr carries either eight supersonic SS-N-26 anti-ship missiles or sixteen subsonic SS-N-25 'Switchblade'. It also carries two twin-tube launchers for 533mm heavy torpedoes. The A-190E 100mm gun first used in the s is controlled by a 5P-10E system that can track four targets simultaneously. Protection from air attacks is provided by the Kashtan CIWS and eight mounts for the SA-N-10 'Grouse' SAM.

Export

In 2007 the Indonesian Navy made an agreement in principle for four vessels of this type to replace their ageing Dutch-built corvettes. The first was to be built in Spain and fitted out in St. Petersburg, leaving open the option of Indonesian involvement in building the subsequent ships. This agreement appears to have lapsed; in 2011 Indonesia signed a deal for two Milgem-class corvettes from Turkey. Rosoboronexport have briefed Singapore and the United Arab Emirates on the vessel.
The first actual contract for the export version, Project 20382 Tigr, was signed at the 5th International Maritime Defense Show in St. Petersburg in July 2011 when Algeria ordered two ships. The cost was estimated at US$120–150 million per ship. One was to be delivered to the Algerian Navy in 2014 and one in 2015, but over five years later, the IISS Military Balance 2020 did not list any such vessels in service with the Algerian Navy.

Operational history

The six corvettes participated in the large-scale drills of the Russian navy in the March and April 2020. The exercise was largely seen as an answer to the largest NATO post-Cold war simulation of amphibious landing in Europe Defender 2020.
The Russian exercise started with corvette Stoikiy and LST Korolyov being deployed to the North sea in early March. In the mid and late March, the three remaining corvettes saw deployments as well. Boikiy was active in the southern North sea, together with LSTs Minsk and Kaliningrad, while Steregushchy and Soobrazitelny were active in the central North sea. Present auxiliary ships included tug Nikolay Chiker, tankers Kola and Akademik Pashin, as well as research ship Yantar Adding the Yaroslav Mudry's deployment to the Indian Ocean, this means that all active major surface combatants of the Baltic fleet were active at the same time, which was an unprecedented event at the time and can be roughly compared only with Ocean shield exercise in the Summer 2019, when two LSTs, three corvettes and a frigate were active in the Baltic sea. At the same time, however, frigates Admiral Grigorovich, Admiral Essen and Admiral Makarov of the Black sea fleet were also active On 26 March combined Russian force with 2 Black sea fleet frigates, 3 Baltic sea corvettes and two LSTs was tracked by 9-ship strong Royal navy squadron.
The 2 corvettes of the Pacific fleet held drills together with a cruiser, 3 destroyers, tracking ship and 3 icebreakers in the sea of Japan, as well as 8 corvettes and 2 minesweepers in the Bering sea.
The second stage of the drills started in on 8 April, when the Steregushchy, Soobrazitelny and Stoiky were again deployed to the Baltic sea. A day earlier, frigate Admiral Kasatonov, submarine St. Petersburg and tug Pamir of the Northern fleet were reported to be in Norwegian sea on their way to the Baltic sea as well.
The intense period of drills continued in mid April. At Pacific fleet they involved 1 LST and 6 anti-ship corvettes. At Northern fleet they included 2 anti-ship, 3 anti-submarine corvettes and supposedly 6 nuclear submarines. Baltic fleet held three more exercises involving 2 LSTs , 6 anti-ship corvettes, 2 anti-submarine corvettes as well as other ships. Boikiy was deployed to English Channel with tanker Akademik Pashin on 30th April.

Ships

Italics indicate estimates