Russia’s new Steregushchiy-class multi-purpose stealth corvette, the Rezky (343), may be handed over to the Pacific Fleet in December. The handover was postponed a few times in the past, with the second half of October being the latest deadline. She will be the fourth corvette of project 20380 in the Pacific fleet. The fourth serial Project 20380 multirole corvette Rezky was laid down at the Amur Shipyard in 2016. The Rezky began its shipbuilder’s running trials in April. the Russian news agency TASS reported that they has been unable to officially confirm the information at the time of the publication.
The Steregushchiy class (Guarding), Russian designation Project 20380, is a 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 (Project 20381), incorporating the Zaslon-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 Gremyashchiy class (Project 20385) and Project 20386 subclasses. The export variant is known as Project 20382 Tigr.
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 Project 20380 corvettes are brown-water warships that fight submarines and warships and provide fire support to amphibious assault. The full displacement is 2.2 thousand tons and the speed is 23 knots. The cruising range is four thousand miles. The corvettes are armed with The 3M-54 Kalibr/Klub (SS-N-27 “Sizzler”) anti-ship missile. , twelve Redut vertical launching system (VLS) cells containing 9M96E medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) of the S-400 system and antiaircraft missiles, A-190 100 mm artillery gun, AK-630 30 mm small-caliber air defense weapons. They also carry 324 mm Paket torpedo launchers, a helipad and a hangar.
