Project 23560E Lider destroyer
Leader / Shkval ? / Squall Class /
New Construction Destroyer / Future Destroyer
The Project 23560 Lider was a Russian ressponse to the American DDG-1000 Zumwalt. Lider appeared to represent the "low" component of a "high/low" mix with the "high component" Project 1144 Orlan/Kirov battlecruisers. Orlan-class project 1144 represented by the Petr Veliky cruiser is bigger than the Leader but has modest capabilities against it. Project 22350M is definitely cheaper. The massive Kirov's provide an unsurpassed "show the flag" presence capability, but they are too few in number to provide this capability when and where it might be needed. A nuclear-powered, high-speed and heavily armed missile warship is not urgently needed and can be replaced by frigates. There is only one war scenario which can demand Russia to have such warships. It is a full-scale non-nuclear sea war with the United States.
The Defense Ministry considered upgraded frigates of project 22350M as the main green-water warships. They have a displacement of 8000 tons and are powered by Russian-made M70 turbines and M-90FRU boosters. It is easier to build and improve the frigates rather than create a gigantic nuclear missile warship such as Lider. The ministry approved the project in 2013. The Severnoe bureau produced the rough design in 2013-2016. Media reports said the Defense Ministry approved it. Optimistic reports claimed the lead warship would be laid in 2019. The annual 2019 statement of Severnoe Design Bureau appeared in public. The statement said “the customer suspended the planned work (for 2017-2019) of project 23560 after the rough design was completed in 2016.”
Ruslan PUKHOV, member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST), noted in a July 05, 2018 interview with the weekly Zvezda and the Army Standard magazine that the new State Arms Program for 2018–2027 seems to have "eliminated excessive inclination towards spending on the Navy, and the construction of the most expensive large surface ships has been prudently transferred to the future. The largest surface ships under construction will remain frigates.... It’s scary to think about what funds will be required and how long it will take to build the “monster-shaped” Leader destroyers or the giant Storm aircraft carrier.... The funds released as a result of the rejection of naval gigantomania and projection must be invested in control systems, reconnaissance and communications, drones and new armored platforms."
The Leader-class multipurpose warship would have anti-aircraft, anti-ballistic missile, anti-surface and anti-submarine capabilities. The destroyer is expected to be equipped with Kalibr-NK cruise missiles and S-500 Prometey or 55R6M Triumfator-M air defense systems. The Zircon hypersonic missiles could also be added to the mix. It would also have a landing pad for two Kamov Ka-27 or Kamov Ka-32 helicopters. The 200-meter long and 20-meter wide vessel would displace up to 17,500 tons. It would travel at a maximum speed of 32 knots. The ship would most likely be nuclear powered. It would be capable of spending up to 90 days offshore without additional refueling or support.
Janes reported in the mid-1990s that the Russian navy intended to built a new missile cruiser or missile destroyer with VLS systems such as the US Ticoderoga and Arleigh Burke AEGIS vessels. Janes underlined that the project was doubtlful because of a complete lack of money, and indeed the project was cancelled.
The Command of the Russian Navy approved the draft presented by the future destroyer design office Severnoe (Saint-Petersburg) in early 2013. If it is completed, this project would build the largest warship in Russia since the collapse of the USSR. The project had yet to get a designation and a name as of mid-2014, which is unusual, since typically Russia sees too many designations chasing not enough ships.
Russia has begun developing a new-generation destroyer for its Navy, which would be built using stealth technology, a source from the defense industry told Interfax-AVN on 11 March 2010. “Research is being done now to determine the image of a new offshore maritime zone vessel, and technical documents for the project are being drawn up. This process will last about 30 months,” the source said.
Speaking to Radio Sputnik 19 May 2016 about the new DDG-1000, retired colonel Viktor Baranets, a prominent Russian military commentator for the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, suggested that the new DDG-1000 destroyer's price tag is beyond the scope of reason, and its claims to invisibility ludicrous. "With an annual defense budget of over $600 billion, the Pentagon can take the liberty of conducting various kinds of experiments, including spending $4.4 billion on a single destroyer. By comparison, one US [Virginia-class] nuclear submarine, the newest in the fleet, costs about $2.2 billion. In other words, they used the budget for two nuclear subs to build one Zumwalt. What can be said? Americans love grandiose projects which sometimes go beyond the scope of reason."
The military analyst also recalled the difference between the Zumwalt and Project 21956, the so-called Leader-class ship conceptualized by Russian designers for the Russian Navy, which is set to go into serial production in 2019. "2015 saw the appearance of the concept of the Leader-class nuclear-powered destroyer, with all our best designs to be installed onboard. But we are moving forward in this area very carefully, because naval doctrines, in connection with rapid developments in the means of attack and defense, are changing very quickly; in other words, we are in no hurry to move forward with such adventurous projects."
The Leader-type destroyers are set to replace Project 956 and Project 1155 ships. The Russian Navy intends to order 12 new destroyers, six for the Northern and six for the Pacific Fleet. The cruise missiles Caliber and Onyx or their modifications, as well as S-500 air defense systems capable of destroying targets in outer space, were previously mentioned as possible armaments for the Leader-type destroyers.
By one account, Lider-class destroyers are planned to have a displacement of 17,500 tonnes, length of 200 meters (over 650 feet) and a width of 20 meters. The preliminary project was approved in 2013 and work on technical plans is expected to start by 2017. The universal destroyer is set to replace three classes of ships, including project 1155 anti-submarine destroyers.
The smaller 9,000-ton Project 21956 Multi-purpose Ship, unveiled in 2007, is designed for fighting submarines and surface ships of an enemy as well as for anti-submarine and anti-air defense of ships and vessels operating as part of a surface group or a task force performing a mission at sea or in the ocean.
The widely attested Project 1157 Cruiser was said to be a stealth upgrade of the Slava class cruiser, designed in the late 1980s to meet the Russian Navy's urgent need to counterbalance the US Aleigh Burke class destroyer. With a displacement of 13,200 tons and a length of 186 meters, the Project 1157 cruiser was equipped with 4 X-band radars, hundreds of missiles including SA-N-24 (sea based S400), 4 Kashtan Air Defence Gun/Missile System, four gas turbines, the ship controls over 300KM radius of battle space with the full speed of 33 knots. But Project 1157 is pure fan art, not a real project. And the Alexander Nevski missile cruiser project is fantastic and not a real project.
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