The Russian Defense Ministry is considering purchasing more Type 22160 corvettes, and a new batch of frigates will be built according to the finalized design. In the future, the Type 22160 corvette will be the backbone of the force guarding Russia's coastal waters. The shipboard armament of the new batch of Type 22160 frigates will also be modified, and the latest modernization project may be equipped with a new long-range air defense system.
The Russian Navy has returned to the era of "air and submarine fast" that the Chinese navy once experienced. A few days ago, Russia celebrated naval festivals, and more than 50 ships, 48 military aircraft and about 4,000 military personnel of the Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet, Black Sea Fleet, Northern Fleet, Pacific Fleet and Caspian Sea Fleet held a simultaneous parade. Russian President Vladimir Putin reviewed Russia's maritime armed forces in St. Petersburg. Putin pointed out that Russia occupies its rightful place among the world's major maritime powers, and there are Russian navies in almost all parts of the world's oceans.
However, the state of the Russian naval vessels participating in the review may not be in line with Putin's boasts, which are very pitiful, and the main ships are composed of some small and exquisite missile ships of hundreds of tons and more than a thousand tons. At present, Russia's coastal defense system presents an alternative tactical idea of "air-to-submarine fast", that is, the main combat force consists of bombers, nuclear submarines and small missile ships. The ability of the ocean-going navy to seize sea supremacy in the deep ocean has been lost.
The Russian Navy's most important weapons development project is to renovate the Backfire Tu-22m3M bomber and modify the MiG-31 to launch dagger missiles in order to maintain anti-ship capabilities in the air. The high level of combat readiness of 8 strategic missile nuclear submarines, 8 cruise missile nuclear submarines and 8 attack nuclear submarines has been maintained.
The Russian Navy's main battle surface fleet consists of a large group of 2,000-ton small missile ships, or even hundreds of tons of missile boats. The tonnage of the Russian Navy's large surface ships is shrinking day by day, and it is not even enough to carry out large-scale ocean-going operations, and the tonnage of the newly built main surface warships cannot catch up with the tonnage of decommissioning and scrapping.
Therefore, the Russian Navy is very much in need of serving some multi-purpose light missile frigates, the Type 22160 offshore frigate is a replacement product of the Cheetah class corvette sold by Russia to Vietnam, and is a new generation of corvettes for the Russian military's own use, with a length of 94 meters, a width of 14 meters and a draft of 3.4 meters. The displacement does not exceed 1500 tons, the crew is about 80 people, the maximum speed is 25 knots, and the voyage is 6000 nautical miles.
Since 2019, three type 22160 offshore frigates have been in service, all in the Black Sea Fleet, and the home port is Novorossiysk. The ship is highly automated and the ship is modular in design, so it can be equipped with a variety of weapon systems. Because of this, they are called "robot ships" in the Russian naval fleet. The Type 22160 is equipped with a 57 mm rapid-fire gun in the bow, followed by a reserved "Fortress" vertical launch system, which can fire 3m14 "caliber" cruise missiles. On each side of the hangar there is a "machete" missile launcher, which can be loaded with 8 "Needle" anti-aircraft missiles with a range of 5,000 meters, or 4 "Trojan" anti-tank missiles. The ship is the first corvette of the Russian Navy to install active/passive towing array sonar, and can carry a Ka-27 anti-submarine ship helicopter.
Initially, during the development of the first ship of the Type 22160 frigate "Vasily Bykov", it was planned to equip it with a "Fortress" vertical-launched anti-aircraft missile system capable of attacking 16 targets at a distance of 400 kilometers, but this idea was abandoned.
The Type 22160 corvette is one of the newest ships of the Russian Navy, the first ship "Vasily Bykov" was delivered to the Russian Navy in 2018, and since then one patrol ship of this type has been handed over every year. There are currently three ships in service, in addition to the first ship, the Dmitry Rogachev and the Pavel Delzavin, both of which are assigned to service with the Black Sea Fleet and based in the port of Novorossiysk. The force's mission includes patrolling coastal waters, protecting naval bases and escorting vessels transiting through the sea.
The Russians plan to build a total of six Type 22160 corvettes by 2023. However, several major fleets of the Russian Navy now need more ships of this class. Because the Type 22160 corvette is highly seaworthy, it is said to be similar to the 4500-ton Type 22350 missile frigate, which can not only operate in the coastal waters of Russia, but also sail in the Black Sea, the Sea of Japan, the Baltic Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and even go to the Red Sea to carry out anti-piracy missions.
If the Type 22160 corvettes are equipped in large quantities, the Russian Navy does not need to dispatch guided missile destroyers and large anti-submarine ships from the Pacific and Northern Fleets when conducting ocean-going missions, and it is more profitable, cheaper, more efficient, fast enough to send type 22160 corvettes, and there are fast boats and short-range weapons on the ship, which can perform a variety of tasks.
Type 22160 corvette is the first general-purpose multi-task corvette developed by Russia, the hull itself as a platform, equipped with different types of weapons and equipment, including anti-submarine, strike, air defense, some weapons can even be loaded in containers, fixed on the helicopter platform at the rear of the hull.
The Type 22160 corvette featured a highly stealthy design with a pronounced inflection of the superstructure, apparently designed to reduce radar features. The modular design of the hull allows for the rapid installation of the weapons and equipment required for specific combat tasks. To detect submarines and torpedoes, the Type 22160 corvette has a modern underwater acoustic station. The ship's hydroacoustic station and other anti-submarine equipment are mounted in a 40-foot shipping container that can be installed on or off deck space, connected to the power system and integrated into the combat control system.
At present, the new combat module is being actively tested, both weapons and equipment and various auxiliary equipment. These include the "Fortress" and "Armor-M" air defense systems, containers equipped with anti-submarine equipment and modules equipped with cruise missiles. The ship can carry 3m14 "caliber-nk" cruise missiles. Artillery systems include 57 mm or 76 mm naval guns available. It is also equipped with special operations anti-sabotage equipment, and small sonar can effectively track underwater saboteurs, such as the combat frogman. Two DP-65 grenade launchers were responsible for fighting the underwater frogmen, and two korrd heavy machine guns were responsible for surface defense.
In 2020, the first ship of the Type 22160 corvette, Vasily Bykov, completed a series of combat tests at high latitudes near the polar region. The ship left the Black Sea, crossed the Mediterranean Sea, bypassed the French coast, and arrived in St. Petersburg via the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, participating in a naval parade. After taking part in the festivities, the Bykov traveled to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal. In the Arctic, it tested the reliability of its navigational systems, firing weapons with live ammunition. Therefore, the Russian Navy concluded that such a small frigate could be used in the northern seas, expanding the scope of use of the ship.