Britain and Norway to lead coalition to support Ukraine on the Black Sea
Britain has announced that, together with Norway, it will lead a new coalition to support Ukraine at sea. The Minister of Defense of the United Kingdom, Grant Shapps, ordered the transfer to Kiev of two Sandown anti-mine minesweepers from the country's navy. What kind of ships are these and what Ukraine's plans to recreate a combat-ready navy can lead to - in the material of the military observer "Gazeta.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
"The new coalition will provide long-term support to Ukraine, including the training of naval personnel, the supply of weapons and military equipment and the creation of appropriate infrastructure to strengthen security in the Black Sea," the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The British military department believes that the coalition will cooperate with Kiev in recreating the Navy, training fleet personnel, increasing the combat readiness of coastal missile and artillery troops and marines, and generally strengthening the country's defense from maritime directions. Finally, it is planned to make the Ukrainian Navy more compatible with the OVMS (United Naval Forces) NATO. Similar agreements were reached during the November meeting of the contact group on the defense of Ukraine.
Minesweepers (ships for searching, detecting and destroying naval mines and guiding ships through minefields. - "Newspaper.Ru") will be purchased by Kiev with the help of the UK Export credit agency. The transfer of the ships will be officially announced by the Minister of Defense of the United Kingdom, Grant Shapps, earlier this week.
According to him, the request to strengthen the Ukrainian Navy "marks the beginning of new targeted efforts by Great Britain, Norway and our allies to strengthen Ukraine's maritime capabilities, increase their ability to act to protect their sovereign waters and strengthen security on the Black Sea."
What ships will Kiev receive?
Sandown minesweepers are a type of British-built mine warfare ships that are equipped with the Navies of the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Estonia. They are designed to search for and destroy sea mines using remotely operated search vehicles.
It is a relatively small ship with a standard displacement of 465 tons (total 484 tons). The minesweeper is equipped with PAP-104 (2) anti-mine search engines, a 30 mm KCB submachine gun, and heavy machine guns. The speed is no more than 15 knots (about 28 km/h). The crew of the ship is 34 people.
Image source: Shutterstock
The UK and Ukraine agreed on the transfer of minesweepers back in 2021. The United Kingdom will supply Kiev with HMS Ramsy (in service since 2000) and HMS Blyth (in service since 2001), which have already been renamed the Ukrainian Navy mine defense ships M310 Chernihiv and M311 Cherkassy.
If we compare the technical characteristics of the Sandown minesweepers with similar ships of the Russian Navy project 12700 Alexandrite, then our minesweeper is slightly larger (standard displacement 800 tons, full 890 tons). Its speed is 16.5 knots, the crew is 44 people. The ship is armed with one AK-306 six-barreled 30-mm artillery mount, eight 9K38 Igla-1 or 9K333 Verba portable air defense missile systems and Skanda unmanned boats based on BL-680.
The Ukrainian mosquito fleet
The United Kingdom has long been making efforts to strengthen the combat capabilities of the Ukrainian Navy. In March 2021, it was reported that the UK shipbuilding industry would design new missile boats as part of a memorandum signed between the two countries. Then London was ready to help Kiev strengthen its position on the shores of the Black and Azov Seas (with the latter the issue is no longer relevant), supply the Ukrainian Navy with ammunition, prepare the country's fleet for confrontation with Russia.
In 2021, the United Kingdom and Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Intent to develop and strengthen the Ukrainian Navy. Two years ago, the issue of restoration and modernization of infrastructure in Berdyansk on the shore of the Sea of Azov and in Ochakov was considered (today the first point has already disappeared, and Ochakov is constantly under attack by the Aerospace Forces and the Russian Navy), the possibilities of supplying missiles and ammunition were studied.
At that time, it was about naval infrastructure facilities that would allow Ukraine to have modern naval bases. It was fixed that fuel depots, ammunition depots, repair bases should be in the proper place, and the mooring front should have an appropriate energy structure. A number of companies in the UK are currently working with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on what the infrastructure of such bases should look like.
At the same time, Kiev has a strategy for the construction and development of the Navy until 2035, which was developed jointly with the United States and Great Britain. And the first part of it is the creation of a mosquito fleet.
The missile boats are designed specifically for Ukraine: they will be original, with a length of approximately 50 to 65 meters, with a speed of about 40 knots. They are going to install artillery systems and short-range or long-range missiles on them. It is planned that these ships will be on the Black Sea in 2025.
Kiev expects that sooner or later, thanks to bilateral military-technical cooperation, Ukraine will be able to build ships of this class so that, together with British ships, it can independently sail to the Mediterranean Sea and the World Ocean.
How Turkey builds corvettes for Ukraine
However, the matter of strengthening the capabilities of the Ukrainian Navy is not limited to boats alone. On October 2, 2022, in Turkey, at the RMK Marine shipyard in Tuzla (the southern outskirts of the Asian part of Istanbul), the launch ceremony of the lead corvette F 211 "Hetman Ivan Mazepa" type Ada (MILGEM), which is under construction for the Ukrainian Navy, took place. This is the first of two ships ordered by Kiev under a contract dated December 2020. Simultaneously with the launch of this corvette, the shipyard held the ceremony of the first steel cutting for the construction of the second ship of the same type ordered by Ukraine.
Ada-class corvette "Hetman Ivan Mazepa"
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
The main contractor in the construction of corvettes for Kiev is the Turkish state design company Savunma Teknolojileri Mühendislik ve Ticaret A.Ş. (STM). The cost of the lead ship for 2020 was estimated at about 8 billion hryvnia (about € 265 million at the then exchange rate) - apparently without taking into account the cost of weapons.
Two or three more corvettes were to be built under license in Ukraine at the Okean plant in Nikolaev, which in December 2020 also signed a corresponding agreement with the Turkish Defense Industry Directorate (SSB). The framework value of the contract was more than $1 billion.
The lead corvette Hetman Ivan Mazepa is to join the Ukrainian Navy in 2024. However, due to the current circumstances, the full implementation of this program looks very, very unlikely. Most likely, the Hetman Ivan Mazepa will be fully completed and handed over to the Ukrainian fleet in Turkey.
The corvettes of the MILGEM project (Ada type) will be equipped with the Boeing Harpoon Block 2 anti-ship missile system (eight missiles), the MBDA VL MICA short-range anti-aircraft missile system with 16 vertical launchers, the 76 mm Leonardo Super Rapid universal artillery system, a 35 mm anti-aircraft artillery system, two 12.7mm remotely controlled machine guns Aselsan STAMP and 324 mm torpedo tubes with MU90 anti-submarine torpedoes. The ship must carry a permanent helicopter.
The Ukrainian authorities will start with a mosquito fleet, and then they will receive corvette-class ships, and in the near future, destroyers. At first, these will be ships from the Navies of some NATO countries (which confirms the creation of another, now naval coalition). It cannot be ruled out that sooner or later the recreated Ukrainian fleet may lead to a certain change in the balance of forces and means in the Black Sea region.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok