Military expert Dmitry Boltenkov — on why ships of the near-sea zone perform ocean tasks
Currently, eight out of ten Russian corvettes perform tasks in various parts of the World Ocean. Previously, this mission was assigned to cruisers and large Soviet-built anti-submarine ships. Why have the ships of the near sea zone become the main "workhorses" of the Navy and how are things going with the construction of large ships?
Two Pacific Fleet corvettes, the Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov and the Sharp, accompanied by the tanker Pechenga, are completing their impressive voyage across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The campaign, which began in January, will end in the port of Vladivostok in the near future. In terms of the number of ports of call and conducted exercises, it may become a record in post-Soviet history. Two more — "Perfect" and "Loud" — perform tasks in the Sea of Okhotsk.
In future voyages of the ships of the Russian fleet, it would be advisable to visit countries such as Sri Lanka, the Seychelles, the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, and Singapore has not had our ships for a long time. It's time to expand the visits to East African countries. For example, our ships were last in Sri Lanka in 2019, and in the Seychelles in 2020. At the same time, there are quite close military ties between Sri Lanka and Russia. So, in the near future, joint military exercises of our countries will be held.
What are such trips for? This gives good maritime practice to the crews. Possible areas of combat operations or humanitarian operations in the future are also being explored. Participation in joint maneuvers increases the level of combat training of sailors.
The visits of Russian ships to foreign ports are a very good example of "soft power". Citizens of Indonesia or Malaysia, for example, see Russians only on TV, and not always in a way that is pleasant to Russia. As it is, the sight of fit and disciplined sailors creates a positive image of the country in the eyes of the population of these states.
And the most important thing. Currently, a series of corvettes for the Pacific Fleet is being built at the shipyard in Komsomolsk-on-Amur: two projects 20380 and four projects 20385. The first of them, the Grozny and the Buyny, are expected to be launched in the near future. Accordingly, crews are being trained for these ships. Officers and sailors who have gained extensive experience of real-life cruises on the ships of this series become the backbone of the commands of the newly built ships. This will allow the corvettes to be mastered faster, tested, accepted into the Navy and put into service faster.
Meanwhile, the corvettes of the Baltic Fleet do not linger in this water area. There are four of them in total, plus the Mercury corvette of the Black Sea Fleet is temporarily included in the BF due to restrictions on the passage of warships through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits. At the moment, all corvettes assigned to the Baltic Fleet, except for the Stereguschy, are located in different seas of the globe. The Stereguysky itself, being the lead ship of the project, is undergoing repairs and modernization at the Kronstadt Marine Plant. At the same time, repair and modernization technologies will be practically worked out, the scope of work and other technical issues will be clarified. This will allow for faster repairs and upgrades of the next ships in the series.
The Mercury corvette is currently in the Northern Fleet. The meaning and purpose of this transition are still unknown, perhaps some new weapons will be tested from aboard the ship, maybe it will participate in testing new weapons launched from other combat units.
The corvette "Boyky" was in the harbor of Conakry, Republic of Guinea, on June 6-9. Moreover, this was the first visit of a Russian warship to this port in the past 15 years. According to unofficial information, the corvette guarded and escorted ships with military cargo. In general, the BF corvettes have recently been acting as ships protecting valuable transports along their routes in order to prevent possible terrorist attacks and possible piratical actions by countries unfriendly to Russia. So in this case, the "Boyky" accompanied the transports "Patria", "Radiance of the North" and "Baltic Leader". The Stoyky corvette also solves similar tasks, escorting transports in the Baltic Sea – Bay of Biscay area. And at the end of April, the corvette "Savvy" entered the waters of the Mediterranean Sea to solve the problem as part of the operational grouping of our ships in this region.
Thus, of the ten corvettes of projects 20380 and 20385 in service, six are in the seas. And if earlier the main "workhorses" of the Russian Navy were Project 1164 cruisers and large anti-submarine ships of Project 1155, which were still Soviet-built, now Russian-made corvettes have taken over their work.
What other corvettes are under construction?
The "daring" project 20386 has turned out to be too complex and innovative, as well as expensive to produce, and its construction is still frozen. The 20386 project itself was planned to replace the 20380 and 20385 corvettes under construction.
Three ships of the 20380 project are in different stages of construction, and five of the 20385 project are also under construction, of which the Agile is afloat and is likely to join the Pacific Fleet in 2026.
Previously, corvettes of this family were considered as ships of the near sea zone for operations in the Baltic and Japanese Seas. The project, however, turned out to be very successful and quite seaworthy for operations in the oceans, as evidenced by the voyages of the ships of the Pacific Fleet. But this is not a good thing — the fact is that corvettes have become the main "workhorses" of the fleet for the reason that it now has a very small number of ships in the far sea zone. And the Baltic corvettes may well find work in their own sea in order to protect the ships going to Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg from the provocations of the Baltic and other states.
It is necessary to step up the construction of ships of the far sea zone. Currently, excluding the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier and nuclear-powered cruisers, the Navy has two cruisers, six BOD, four frigates (one of which is the upgraded Marshal Shaposhnikov 1155) and five patrol ships (of which two are already of considerable age). Two more frigates are under repair, and the Admiral Chabanenko has been under repair for more than a decade. And of the five patrol ships, four are solving tasks in the zone of a special military operation and cannot leave the Black Sea. The destroyers of Project 956 have already left our fleets. The new frigates of the 22350 project are being built very slowly — there are five units under construction, and after 2020 there were no new bookmarks. It is impossible to extend the life and repair the large anti-submarine ships 1155 of the Soviet construction period all the time. It's time to make new frigates to replace them.
The editorial board's position may not coincide with the author's opinion.
