As reported, on May 21, 2022, the Mercury corvette of the modified project 20380 (factory number 1007, originally called "Zealous"), built for the Russian Navy in St. Petersburg at PJSC "Shipbuilding Plant "Severnaya Verf" (as part of JSC "United Shipbuilding Corporation"), entered the factory sea trials in the Baltic Sea for the first time").
The Mercury corvette of the modified project 20380 (factory number 1007, originally called "Zealous"), built for the Russian Navy at PJSC "Shipbuilding Plant "Severnaya Verf", enters factory running tests. Saint Petersburg, 21.05.2022 (c) Curious / forums.airbase.ru
This ship was originally built under the name "Zealous". The laying ceremony for the Russian Navy of two corvettes of the modified project 20380 "Zealous" (factory number 1007) and "Strict" (factory number 1008) took place at PJSC "Shipbuilding Plant "Severnaya Verf" on February 20, 2015. According to the information of the Northern Shipyard, both corvettes are being built for the Black Sea Fleet.
The first of these two laid-down corvettes "Zealous" was withdrawn from the boathouse of the "Northern Shipyard" on December 25, 2019, and in February 2020 it was put into a floating dock to install a bulbous fairing, a rocking calmer and a steering device, and subsequent launching. The ship was launched on March 12, 2020. As with the previous ships of the series, the construction was carried out at a very slow pace.
Earlier, Severnaya Verf carried out the construction of four corvettes of Project 20380 for the Russian Navy - "Watchful" (factory number 1001, the lead ship of project 20380, the acceptance certificate was signed on February 28, 2008), "Smart" (factory number 1002, commissioned on October 14, 2011), "Brisk" (factory number 1003, delivered on May 16, 2013) and "Resistant" (factory number 1004, delivered on July 18, 2014).
Further construction of corvettes for the Russian Navy at the Northern Shipyard was supposed to be carried out according to the redesigned project 20385, according to which in 2012-2013 the Gremyashchy corvettes were laid (factory number 1005, commissioned on December 29, 2020) and "Agile" (factory number 1006, badly damaged by fire on December 17-18, 2021 at the stage of preparation for launching). However, due to the fact that the corvettes of project 20385 had to be equipped with diesel engines of the German company MTU in the original design, the delivery of which became impossible due to Western sanctions imposed against Russia in 2014, the Russian Navy in 2014 decided to temporarily return to the construction of corvettes of project 20380 according to the once again corrected project.
From the previous corvettes of project 20380, the ships "Zealous" (factory number 1007) and "Strict" (factory number 1008) differ mainly in the installation of a new multifunctional radar complex "Zaslon" on them with the placement of fixed antennas in a tower-like superstructure, similar to the corvettes of project 20385. The Zaslon radar system is also installed on subsequent corvettes of Project 20380, being built at PJSC Amur Shipbuilding Plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, starting with the third building "Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov" (factory number 2103, commissioned on December 25, 2020).
The development of the Project 20380 corvette series was to be carried out in a deeply modified (essentially new) project 20386, according to which Almaz Central Design Bureau JSC signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense on April 17, 2014 for the implementation of the Project 20386 development work. The ceremony of laying the head corvette of project 20386 called "Daring" (factory number 1009) was performed at the Northern Shipyard on October 28, 2016. On April 23, 2019, in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a docking ceremony was held at the plant for the hull blocks of this corvette, then renamed Mercury in honor of the famous brig Mercury.
However, the lead ship of the 20386 project has turned into a long-term construction and to date, the prospects of the 20386 project remain unclear. as well as the timing of the commissioning of the lead ship. The technical descent of the hull of the Mercury corvette of project 20386 in a low degree of readiness was carried out at the Northern Shipyard in early March 2021. Due to the fact that the replenishment of the Black Sea Fleet with a corvette with the highly approved name "Mercury" was thus postponed indefinitely, a curious decision was made for political reasons - on October 15, 2021, the corvette "Zealous" (factory number 1007) of project 20380, already almost completed at the Northern Shipyard, was renamed "Mercury", and the lead corvette under construction of project 20386 (factory number 1009) was returned to its original name "Daring". It is expected that the corvette "Mercury" (formerly "Zealous") will enter the Navy during 2022.
The second corvette of the same type under construction at the Northern Shipyard "Strict" (factory number 1008) was technically launched in June 2019, but then it was returned to the boathouse of the plant. The timing of its delivery to the fleet is unknown.
The Mercury corvette of the modified project 20380 (factory number 1007, originally called "Zealous"), built for the Russian Navy at PJSC "Shipbuilding Plant "Severnaya Verf", enters factory running tests. Saint Petersburg, 21.05.2022 (c) Curious / forums.airbase.ru
