A festive construction-starting ceremony of second serial Project 20380 corvette took place at Amur Shipyard on Feb 17; the ship was christened Gromky and is expected to join Pacific Fleet, city administration of Komsomolsk-on-Amur told Central Navy Portal.
The ceremony was attended by Khabarovsk Governor Vyacheslav Shport, representatives of city administration of Komsomolsk-on-Amur, directors of the shipyard, high-ranking officials of Russian Navy and JSC United Shipbuilding Corporation.
That was not a keel-laying but the beginning of the ship construction. Shipwrights welded the first seam on the first section, and the keel-laying plaque will be planted when the hull frame is assembled.
Corvette Gromky (serial number 2102) is expected to join Russian Navy in 2015. Project 20380 corvette Sovershenny laid down in summer of 2006 is also under construction at JSC Amur Shipyard. By now, the ship’s hull has been shaped, and basic systems have been already mounted.
Russian Navy is in need of such surface warships. According to plans recently voiced by Navy Commander-in-Chief ADM Vladimir Vysotsky, up to 20 corvettes of Project 20380 and its modernized variant Project 20385 will be built for the Navy. Keel-laying ceremony of Project 20385 lead corvette was held on Feb 1 at Severnaya Verf shipyard (St. Petersburg).
New corvettes outclass analogous ships as of performance characteristics. Their basic features are versatility, advanced automation of onboard systems, higher speed, and improved missile defense capabilities. By virtue of special architectural and design solutions, the ship’s secondary radar and infrared signatures are considerably reduced, as well as underwater noisiness.
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World Maritime News Staff, February 20, 2012; Image: englishboard