And why they proved to be the most effective in a special military operation
The patrol vessels of the project 22160 of the Black Sea Fleet played a leading role in repelling the attacks of unmanned boats on the ships of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea, which Ukraine tried to conduct on September 13 and 14. In fact, they turned out to be the most effective combat ship of the SVO. These ships actively participated in the battles, and are now engaged in the blockade of Ukrainian ports and the fight against naval drones. Izvestia was looking into what the 22160 project is and whether such ships really have unique combat capabilities.
Project history
Project 22160 was created by the Northern Design Bureau from St. Petersburg, which has been developing universal warships of various classes for the Navy since Soviet times. Initially, the ship was conceived as a "workhorse of the fleet", which will solve tasks that do not require unique combat power and record-breaking characteristics. It was intended to patrol the waters of naval bases and protect territorial waters within the 200-mile exclusive economic zone.
Patrol ship of project 22160 "Dmitry Rogachev"
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Vitaly Timkiv
The tasks assigned to patrol ships of this class in peacetime are the performance of border functions, the fight against piracy, the protection of marine infrastructure and offshore oil production facilities, as well as assistance to seafarers in distress. At the same time, they accompany transport caravans, fight with enemy surface and submarine ships, take part in strikes against sea and land targets. They can also solve air defense tasks. In other words, it is a universal patrol ship of relatively small displacement, which should perform auxiliary functions and strengthen ships of the "corvette" and "frigate" classes.
In the Soviet naval tradition, almost any ship had to carry a missile system. They were equipped with both aircraft carriers and corvettes or boats. Most often, as a result of such total "rocketization", quite effective combat units equipped with powerful anti-ship complexes were obtained. But there were exceptions.
Patrol ship of project 22160 "Pavel Derzhavin"
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Vitaly Timkiv
The small displacement of the patrol ship of the project 22160 did not allow it to be equipped with a universal launcher of the modern Kalibr missile system — the same as on small Karakurt missile ships or corvettes and frigates of modern projects. Then the designers proposed to the fleet to make the 22160 project modular, that is, depending on the needs of the fleet, the ship can receive a container with one or another set of weapons or equipment. By default, this ship remained without a missile system.
In the future, it was supposed to adapt a container version of the Kalibra-K with four lifting launchers of anti-ship missiles X-35 "Uran" or universal cruise missiles "Kalibr" for it. According to calculations, the ship will be able to take on board up to two such containers. Within the water area, for example, of the Black Sea, with such missile weapons, the ships of Project 22160 could strike at ground targets, including deep into enemy territory.
However, as recent events show, artillery armament turned out to be the most in demand for small patrol ships: each ship has an AK-176MA-01 installation with a rapid-firing 76-mm cannon and an MP-123 "Bagheera" control system, which includes a radar for detecting small-sized surface objects. The gun is designed for firing at sea and air targets in manual and automatic guidance modes.
Patrol ship of project 22160 "Sergey Kotov"
Image Source: Photo: TASS/Sergey Malgavko
In addition to her, two MTPU-1 "Sting" machine gun mounts with large-caliber 12.7-mm or 14.5—mm machine guns are installed on the ship, one on each side. It was the machine guns and the cannon that played a decisive role in the fire defeat of the unmanned fire ships attacking Sevastopol from the sea. Detection of high-speed surface targets could be carried out by a duty watch armed with night vision devices. By the way, additional machine—gun installations can be installed on ships of this type - this significantly increases the density of fire.
New application
On September 13, the Ukrainian side tried to carry out a combined attack on Sevastopol — the Sevmorzavod ship repair facility was attacked from the air with Storm Shadow cruise missiles, and at the same time three kamikaze fire ships broke into the bay from the sea. All three marine drones were destroyed by the patrol ship of the project 22160 "Vasily Bykov": the ship performed its combat mission independently and without damage.
The next day, September 14, at about 05:00, while patrolling in the Black Sea, the ship of project 22160 "Sergey Kotov" was attacked by five fire-ships. Artillery fire destroyed all attacking objects at a safe distance.
Patrol ship of project 22160 "Vasily Bykov"
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Alexander Galperin
No missile system could compete with rapid—firing artillery systems in such combat situations - neither in reaction speed nor in reliability of operation. Anti—ship complexes are still better suited for hitting full-fledged warships and ground targets than for fighting small inconspicuous high-speed targets - for example, marine kamikaze drones. Thus, it turned out that the relatively poorly armed patrol ship of the 22160 project became a very effective fighter of unmanned boats.
At the same time, the absence of a standard missile system for the patrol ship of project 22160 still causes reasonable criticism, although it cannot be excluded that these complexes will still appear during modernization. In the meantime, on some ships of the project, modules of the land-based anti-aircraft complex "Tor-M2KM" were installed on the helipad and, apparently, as an experiment. Such a largely forced decision, however, gives ships of this class completely new opportunities for organizing air defense. Most likely, these experiments will serve as a justification for the modernization of the project.
Of course, a ship of this class cannot compete with larger rocket corvettes. The latter are designed for completely different tasks — for example, to fight a full-fledged enemy fleet. But it is patrol ships that take over the work of protection and defense against sea and air drones.
Dmitry Kornev
