The first major surface combatant to be designed and built in Russia since the demise of the Soviet Union was floated out at the Severnaya Verf shipyard in St Petersburg on 29 October. The future RFS Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Gorshkov is the first of ten frigates planned in as many years to succeed the Soviet-era Burevestnik (Krivak) class.
With the Russian Navy short of escorts, the class number could eventually number 20 ships. The lead ship, which was only 40 per cent complete at launch, is due to enter service with the Russian Black Sea Fleet in 2013. A second, to be named Admiral Flota Kasatonov, will follow a year later.
The Project 22350 has been developed with lessons learned from production of the Talwar class for export to the Indian Navy. At 4,500 tonnes, the Russian ships are larger and will be equipped with eight Oniks 3M55 (SS-N-26) supersonic anti-ship missiles, an Uragan (SA-N-7) SAM system and a combined Kashtan (CADS-N-1) 30mm Gatling gun and Grisson (SA-N-11) octuple missile system for point defence.
