The new frigate will bring the Navy closer to the capabilities of the Soviet era

Last week, the ninth frigate of Project 22350 for the Russian Navy, Admiral of the Gromov Fleet, was laid down at the Northern Shipyard. This event is significant for a number of reasons. What capabilities does this ship have, how is it unique compared to the frigates of other leading maritime powers – and what is needed for the frigates of this series to become the most effective combat units of the Russian Navy?

The collapse of the Soviet Union led not only to the loss of production capabilities, but also to the oblivion of a number of principles for the formation of combat-ready naval personnel. It can take a long time to list them, but in a simplified form we are talking about the following: ships must be built in large unified series, attempts to improve the composition of weapons and equipment on each laid hull are evil, as they lead to deconstruction, problems with repairs, difficulties in training personnel and the inability to form a naval unit from ships of homogeneous capabilities. Now, by the way, these principles are being revived .

And the ship must be well armed, but at the same time balanced. The set of weapon systems on board should be such that some systems do not interfere with the use of others.

All these things seem obvious, but the problem is that during the actual construction of real ships, these principles were deviated from – and often. And not only in Russia. With the most negative consequences.

But the Project 22350 series of frigates was able to avoid this. The path to the Navy for the lead ship of the project, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov of the Fleet of the Soviet Union, was incredibly thorny and long. The project summed up another rejection of the old rule – to check all ship complexes on the ground stands. But the next ships in the series were already less problematic and were built faster.

In a sense, the frigates of Project 22350 could be considered the last hope of the Navy. It was the fate of this series that determined whether we would have surface forces capable of operating in the far sea zone or not. Today, after the laying of the ninth frigate, we can say for sure – yes. And they will have considerable combat capabilities. Also, due to the versatility of the 22350 project, these ships will be useful for the country in any situation in the world.

An explanation is needed here. Usually, each country's shipbuilding programs are linked to a more global strategy. So, China is trying to achieve numerical superiority over the United States, and the most massively built Chinese warship capable of operating in ocean areas remote from China is the Project 054 frigate. It's simple, inexpensive, and moderately armed, but there are a lot of these frigates. And powerful destroyers and aircraft carriers form the core of the strike force, capable of dealing with almost any enemy in battle, except the US Navy, and even those will be forced to strain very much, and the losses will be considerable.

Firstly, these ships are made universal. They can perform any task, although not always the best, but still good. Secondly, they are the most armed frigates in the world. The first four ships carry up to 16 cruise missiles, the next five are already 24, and this is not counting the 130–mm cannon, anti-aircraft missile system and torpedoes.

For China, or even for the United States, such a frigate would be over–sized, too armed, too versatile, and, as a result, too expensive. Why would they need a frigate capable of carrying cruise missiles in such numbers if these missiles are on destroyers? The frigate should be a "workhorse" and perform one or two tasks well, for example, searching for submarines and "displaying the flag" wherever it is necessary to indicate presence. Therefore, you need a lot of them and they should be cheaper.

But Russia doesn't have destroyers, and they haven't been built yet. Frigates are the largest and most powerful ships for the Navy that we can build at the moment, and they will get the most difficult combat missions. They will, in fact, be a surface fleet. And they should be able to do everything.

And, admittedly, they fully meet this task. By the composition of their weapons and electronic equipment, as well as the presence of an aircraft hangar and the ability to carry a helicopter, these frigates can fight submarines and aircraft, conduct missile and artillery combat with other ships or detachments of ships, strike coastal targets with cruise missiles, and shell coastal targets with artillery. Their composition of missile weapons – 32 anti-aircraft and 16-24 attack missiles – is unprecedented for a ship of this size and displacement. Few frigates have a gun of comparable caliber either, of those that are being built now, only the Japanese Mogami (127 mm).

For some time, it was unclear to what extent the sanctions would affect the ability to build these ships. But, as you can see, solutions to the sanctions problems have been found, and the ships will continue to be built.

After Admiral Gromov, the ninth in a row, Admiral Vysotsky is planned. If it can be laid down and built, then Russia will already "catch up" with the USSR to some extent – the latter had a series of large anti-submarine ships (BOD) of project 1134B consisting of seven units and project 1134A consisting of 10 units. As can be seen, the number of post-Soviet frigates is already approaching some of the Soviet numbers of BOD-built frigates.

At the same time, frigates are more powerful than missile cruisers of projects 58 (four units), 1134 (four units), and even, due to the qualities and tactical and technical characteristics of missile weapons, Project 1164 (three were handed over to the fleet, one is rusting in Ukraine). In general, the ninth building, and even at such a time, is a good sign, there is something to be happy about.

However, it is worth remembering that technology does not fight on its own – the people who control it are fighting. In addition, some shortcomings of ships can be identified only by applying them to their intended purpose. Woe to the navy, which learned about the shortcomings of its ships only during the war. The losses suffered by the British in the Falklands is a prime example.

For example, it is a reflection of training missile strikes on a ship, with real launches of anti–aircraft missiles at real flying false targets, plausibly imitating Western anti-ship missiles, inconspicuous and low-altitude. Real firing of torpedoes and anti–torpedoes at realistic false targets - to be ready to repel attacks from underwater.

As well as close-to-combat exercises to bring the frigate to the line of using missile defense weapons to enemy ships that intensively evade a strike and try to inflict it themselves. Using a helicopter in the fight against submarines in heavy rolling and wind. Anti-ship missile launches at targets in a difficult jamming environment. Practice accurate artillery firing at all types of targets – air, surface and ground, at different speeds. A separate issue is the preparation of ships and crews to combat unmanned boats.

The frigates of the 22350 project, like any weapon, are technically not ideal, but working out these tasks with maximum exertion and careful preparation will be able to reduce the significance of all existing shortcomings of the ships to zero. With the appropriate training of the crews, the Admiral Gromov and all the other ships in the series will not only become a combat unit on paper, but will also be a real one. And then nine or ten of our heavily armed frigates will turn out to be a military factor, much more significant than one and a half to two times the number of simpler ships.

Alexander Timokhin