ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) — The first two Project 22800 corvettes, dubbed the Uragan and the Taifun, were laid down on December 24. The warships will have a displacement of 800 metric tons and a maximum speed of over 30 knots.
"Tests of Uragan should be carried out in the next six months, it is practically equipped with all devices. After floating, the mooring trials, adjustment, alignment of all the main units will begin and I think it is quite possible to transfer the ship to the Navy before year-end, we will hope," Borisov said.
He noted that the Uragan has solid weapons.
"[The corvette] is small in size, but very toothy. As you know, it is armed with Kalibr cruise missiles, which have shown their worth in the Syrian conflict. It has missile and cannon armament, there will be an anti-aircraft missile system. It is a formidable weapon that, in our opinion, will dominate the inland seas of Russia and provide escort for the near zone in the Pacific, the Northern Fleet, and the Baltic," the deputy defense minister said.
Kalibr missiles have been repeatedly fired from Russia’s Buyan-M-class ships and Varshavyanka-class submarines against Daesh targets in Syria. Since the Kalibr missile has an operational range of up to 2,500 km, the launches were carried out from the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.
The deputy defense minister took part in the floating ceremony of the lead ship Uragan of Project 22800 (Karakurt-class corvettes) at the Pella shipyard in Russia's second-largest city of St. Petersburg.
The Russian official added that construction of the ships at the country's Far East is reasonable because of the issues related to logistics and to local shipbuilding capacities.
In December 2016, Chief of the Navy’s Main Staff Vice Adm. Andrey Volozhinsky said that Pella would build 18 Karakurt-class warships for the Russian Navy by 2022.
