The Russian Navy has picked some new hardware this year, with three new advanced warship and nearly 50 Kalibr cruise missiles, and four anti-ship missiles during the first half of 2018. Kalibr cruise missiles cruise at subsonic speeds and some of them can hit targets at supersonic speeds, giving defensive systems no opportunity for defensive reactions. Additionally, the Russian Navy expects to add six more project 22350 frigates into service by 2025.
RT reports:
Three advanced warships and 49 Kalibr cruise missiles were among the hardware added to the Russian Navy in the first six months of the year, Russia’s Defense Ministry has revealed.
The new naval acquisitions included “three newly built combat ships, two support vessels, and one warship that had undergone repairs, as well as the Bastion coastal defense missile system,” Deputy Defense Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko said.
A total of 49 Kalibr tactical cruise missiles and four anti-ship missiles also entered service in 2018, he added. Kalibr missiles can hit ships, submarines and coastal facilities. They travel at subsonic speeds, with several of its versions being capable of performing a supersonic sprint in the final phase of the attack, giving the target’s defense systems less time to react.
One of the new ships, medium reconnaissance vessel ‘Ivan Khurs,’ is currently docked at a base in Kronshtadt at Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland, where it is preparing for the main Navy Day parade. It’s fully ready to “accomplish its assigned missions,” which include providing for communications and the fleet’s command and control, carrying out radio-technical reconnaissance, and conducting electronic warfare, Captain 1st Rank Grigory Chernetsky, commander of the 13th Brigade of the Baltic Fleet’s Leningrad naval base, told TASS.
Missile corvette ‘Vyshny Volochyok’ was assigned to the Black Sea Fleet, which has its headquarters in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. “The warship is furnished with modern strike, missile, air-defense and artillery systems, and has successfully passed all types of trials in the Black Sea,” said Captain 1st Rank Igor Vorobyov, commander of the 41st Brigade of Missile Boats of the Black Sea Fleet’s Crimean Navy.
The Russian Navy is also expected to receive lead frigate ‘Admiral Gorshkov’ in time for the main Navy Day parade on July 29. Armed with Kalibr and Oniks cruise missiles, the Project 22350 warship displaces 4,500 tons and can hit speeds of 29 knots (around 58kph). Russia expects to put six frigates of this type into service by 2025.
The main Navy Day parade is traditionally held in St. Petersburg on the last Sunday in July. Warships and vessels of the Baltic, Pacific, Northern and Black Sea Fleets will take part in this year’s show.
Russian military capabilities are continually on the rise both as their number and their advanced capabilities, on a military budget that is just a small fraction of that of its nearest rival. Meanwhile, the US boasts a new class of destroyers that regularly experience issues of an irreparable nature. For example, the Numwalt-class destroyer USS Michael Monsoor has once against been forced to return to the shipyard following the failure of its Rolls-Royce MT30 marine gas turbine engine during trials. Last time the Monsoor had to make a shipyard call was over electrical issues. Between the Tomahawk, the Patriot, the Apache, the F-35, and presently its newest class of destroyer, the US is increasingly spending a massive budget for hardware that is at best unreliable.
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