Steregushchy corvette (Project 20380)

Indeed, the St. Petersburg-based Severnaya Verf shipyard had never seen so many eminent guests as on December 21 last year when the Steregushchy corvette (Project 20380) was laid down for the Russian Navy.

The ceremony was attended by Mikhail Kasyanov, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Ilya Klebanov, Deputy Prime Minister; Victor Cherkessov, Plenipotentiary of the Russian President in the Northwest Federal District; Vladimir Yakovlev, Governor of St. Petersburg; Sergei Frank, Minister of Transport; Vladimir Pospelov, Director General of the Russian Shipbuilding Agency; Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy; and other officials.

The broad attendance of high-rank officials emphasized the significance of the event: the Russian Navy had not ordered large surface ships for years. «Today we begin the construction of a series of combat ships,» Mikhail Kasyanov announced at the meeting held to mark the laying-down of the corvette. «The Navy is one of the the state’s primary concerns,» he stressed. This idea was highlighted by all other speakers.



«The mechanism of implementing Russia’s Marine Doctrine is coming into operation,» said Boris Kuzyk, Director General of the New Projects and Concepts industrial holding company which comprises the Severnaya Verf shipyard. «The construction of Project 20380 corvettes is part of the plan to restore Russia’s naval power.»

Igor Ivanov is General Designer of Project 20380 corvette.

It does not mean though that the concept of Project 50 ships as multipurpose patrol boats of the coastal waters was abandoned: it fully meets the present-day requirements for corvette-class ships. And there is a lot of logic in this.

In Britain, corvettes, having slow-speed whale-boats as their prototypes, were reborn during WWII exclusively as anti-submarine ships intended to protect convoys from German «wolf packs.»

In Russia, the history of patrol boats goes back to torpedo-boats — high-speed ships equipped primarily with offensive weapons. It has not always been justified. Today, however, it is such ships — comparably inexpensive and universally armed — that are sought for.

This can be easily explained by the western navies’ adherence to the concept of littoral war which implies that a country is prepared to wage active see warfare against another country in the latter’s littoral zone. The name of the American version of this trendy concept speaks for itself: «Forward... from Sea.» Obviously, Russia cannot ignore such plans of western strategists.

So there are good grounds to believe that Project 20380 corvettes will become basic means of protection of Russia’s adjacent littoral waters.



Length overall 93.9 m
Length at WL 84.6 m
Beam at deck 13.0 m
Depth at the fore 9.4 m
Depth amidships 7.8 m
Depth at transom 7.8 m
Full displacement ab.1900 t
Maximum speed 26-27 kn
Range at 14 kn cruise speed with full fuel stores 4000 nm
Endurance with maximum fresh water and provision stores 15 days
Crew, including helo team 90

PROPULSION SYSTEM
Twin shaft CODOG system, comprising:
......2x10,000 kW gasturbines
......2x3650 kW diesel engines

ELECTRIC SYSTEM
Basic power supply AC 380/220V, 50 Hz.
4x630 kw diesel gensets.




ARMAMENT
8xYAKHONT anti ship missiles in 2 vertical launchers
6xMEDVEDKA-VE anisubmarine missiles in one vertical launcher
A190 gun mount 100mm caliber
2xKASHTAN-M close-in AA missile-artillery system
2xMTPU pedstal mashine gun 14.5 mm caliber

SENSORS
Observation and target designation Radar system
Attack missile target designation Radar system
Artillery fire control Radar system
Two optronic fire control systems for AA close-in weapons
ECM Radar system
Chaff and decoy launcher system with four launchers
CO's electronic commamd console
Sonar system with hull mounted and towed arrays
Anti diver sonar system



NAVIGATION AIDS
Integrated navigated system, compring gyro, magnetic compass, echosounder, log, radio direction finder, satellite system. The details of navaids complement could be specified on Customer choice.

COMMUNICATION
The complement of communication system is provided under Customer specifications.

OTHER EQUIPMENT
Active roll motions damper
Helicopter, hangar, flight deck
Launching/retrieving device for a towed sonar



Catatan Moderator :

Nampaknya kekhawatiran TNI akan kemungkinan embargo Korvet SIGMA sangat beralasan, karena saat Indonesia memesan Korvet buatan Royal Schelde ini banyak menuai protes politik di Belanda. Selain itu, dua bulan sebelum diserah terimakan ke TNI AL, kapal belum juga dilengkapi dengan persenjataan yang diinginkan TNI AL seperti peluru kendali dan alat sensor.

Terkait akan hal itu, TNI AL tampaknya mulai melirik Rusia untuk melanjutkan program pengadaan Korvet tahap II. Dengan harga yang relatif sama, Rusia menawarkan Korvet Stereguschyy jauh lebih komplit dengan persenjataan yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan TNI AL yakni rudal Yakhont dan Kasthan-M AD, torpedo 6 Mevedka-VE, meriam 100 mm dan Helikopter Ka 32 Helix.

Jauh berbeda dengan Belanda yang dengan setengah hati akhirnya mau melengkapi persenjataan pada Korvet, tanpa heli pula.

Namun, karena kerjasama pengadaan Korvet dari Belanda dilakukan lebih dulu sesuai program Renstra TNI AL 2003-2013 maka pemerintah RI memutuskan untuk melanjutkan pengadaan Korvet Sigma buatan Belanda untuk tahap II.

Awal Juli lalu KSAL menandatangani MoA antara RI - Russia mengenai konstruksi korvet ini, seperti dirilis beberapa media, untuk pengadaan korvet buat TNI AL ini, hull (lambung) akan dibuat di Spanyol dan avionik serta persenjataannya dari Russia.

Agak aneh memang, untuk sekedar pembuatan hull sampai melibatkan negara ke-tiga. Kemungkinannya ALMAZ Shipbuilding Company dari RUSSIA melibatkan Spanyol dalam pembuatan dan pengembangannya. Terbukti dengan hadirnya freegat F-100 di pameran Maritim (IMDS-2007) di St.Petersburg akhir Juni lalu.