Project 1244.1 Novik ("Thunder")

For some reason the fleet did not like the Project 1154 "Skua" class of ships. A new TTZ was issued, and on a competitive basis, as the winner, the order went SMDB "Diamond", which before that, in general, was engaged only in boats. They developed the frigate under Project 1244.1 ("Thunder"). Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the need for domestic Russian production of components for the design made it necessary to launch new production capacities in Russia.

The Novik multipurpose patrol ship (SKR) was designed to perform patrol missions, search for and kill enemy submarines, escort naval ships, and defend coastlines. The Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau began design work on this class in the late 1980s, intended as a less expensive alternative to the somewhat larger Neustrashimyy (Project 1154.0) class multirole frigates that could be produced in sufficient numbers to maintain Russian fleet force levels.

Very few of the parameters of the tactical and technical characteristics were initially known. Russian sources suggest that the length was 100 meters and displacement is 3,000 tons, while Western sources provide other estimates. The ship would be armed with an artillery system, antisubmarine weapons and sonar system, electronic equipment, and antiaircraft weapons. The displacement was 2,560/2,900 tons, and the dimensions were 121 meters length, and 14 meters beam. The power was gas turbines (2 boosters and 2 afterburner) with 49,000 hps providing a speed of 32 knots. The autonomy was 30 days , and the crew of 165 people (of which 21 were officer). The armament was 6 x 3 rocket launchers, "Onyx», 4 x 8 launchers SAM "polyment», 2 x 4 PU complex PLO "Waterfall", a 100-mm AU A-190, 1 x 12-30 mm AK-630-2 "Roy".

The first ship of this project, "Novik" was laid July 27, 1997. Work at the Kaliningrad-based Yantar Shipbuilding Plant on the Novik, the first ship of the class, reportedly ceased immediately after her ceremonial keel-laying on 26 July 1997, and as of early 1999 had apparently not been resumed [and may not be resumed]. It had been reported that the unfunded project had been canceled in January 1998 when the ship was only 4.5% complete. However, renewed funding for the project was reportedly included in the 2000 defense budget.

The construction of a large series of this project involved yards in Kaliningrad, Komsomolsk-on-Amur and in St. Petersburg at the Northern Shipyard. But due to lack of funding, and, most importantly, because of the unavailability of a number of planned weapons systems to be installed, the construction of the lead ship was suspended. In other yards such ships were not even laid down. To save almost ready hull, after lengthy discussions, it was decided to reclassify it into a training ship and a ship to test new weapons systems. He was given a new name-"Borodino". The duration of processing documents extended to the end of 2008.

As of early 2004 the Yantar shipyard was building a training ship for the Russian Navy, constructed on the basis of R&D carried out for the Novik, a Project 1244.1 ship, the construction of which had been suspended pending a Russian government order. The training ship was scheduled to be commissioned by the Navy in 2008.

It was announced the ship would be finished as the training ship Borodino but in 2009 it was reported that the unfinished ship would be offered for sale overseas. In 2016 it was announced that the Yantar shipyard had no interest in completing what it regarded as an outdated design and would scrap the unfinished hull in order to free up space to work on more cost effective projects.