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SKR - Storozhevoi Korabl' / Guard Ship

The use of Western warship classifications to describe Russian designs which have totally different operational rationales has always been a major barrier to proper analysis of these ships. The patrol ship is intended not only to carry out patrol service, but also to protect its ships and merchant ships from attacks. These vessels have been variously classified as "guard ships" (storozhevoi korabl), "rocket guard ships" (storozhevoi korabl' raketnyi - SKR), with some later classed as "large ASW ships" (BPK) or "large missile ships" (BRK). Some light frigate designs were classified as small anti-submarine or later escort ships. The SKR is intended to patrol coastal and territorial zone waters on relatively short-duration cruises. In peacetime, the primary role has been maritime policing with the prevention of smuggling and illegal entry and exit as priorities. In wartime, the major role is to provide shallow-water ASW and defense against enemy surface ships. An additional role, formulated in the mid-1950s, is to provide advance warning of air attack, alerting the air defense network. In effect, the SKR is a combination of frigate and OPV.

Frigates as a subclass of escort ships revived in the middle of the last century, at the beginning of World War II. They did not owe their appearance to any new type of weapon, as was the case with destroyers, aircraft carriers or minesweepers, but exclusively to the needs of the practice of war at sea. In the 30s, the theory of naval art devoted a lot of space to the issues of struggle in communications. However, the outbreak of war showed that no country was ready for their protection, especially from submarine attacks.

Frigates (according to the Russian classification — patrol ships of the 2nd rank) in the Russian fleet are designed to search for submarines as part of heterogeneous search and strike groups, to ensure the combat stability of units and groups of ships and ships, including convoys. In addition, naval frigates, along with frigates of the Federal Border Service, can be involved to protect bioresources and production activities within the economic zone and the Russian continental shelf.

In the Soviet Navy, frigates, according to the Russian classification, are large anti-submarine ships (BOD), appeared in the 60s with the introduction of the famous “singing frigates”, pr. 61. Such a late appearance of the ships of this subclass is explained by the fact that back in pre-war years we adopted the progressive Italian-German concept of the destroyer escort ship for that time. The correctness of this approach was confirmed by the outbreak of World War II, which prompted the British, and then the Americans, to follow a similar path, creating escort destroyers. Another thing is that already by 1945 the nature of the war at sea had changed so much that the torpedo armament of escort ships became redundant, but the Soviets did not catch it. As a result, until the end of the 1950s, escort destroyers, pr. 42 and 50, continued to be built, classified in the domestic fleet as patrol ships.

The GUARD SHIPS (TFR) of “URAGAN” ["Hurricane"] type (pr. 2, 4 and 39) were the first-born of the Soviet surface shipbuilding. They were built according to three projects, which slightly differed in their performance characteristics, in Leningrad at the A.A. Zhdanov plant (now OJSC Severnaya Verf shipyard) and in Nikolaev at the plant named after Marty (now the Black Sea Shipbuilding Plant) from 1927 to 1938. (18 units). Ships took an active part in the Great Patriotic War.

The ICR "Hawk" project was developed in 1938-1939; By June 1941, 14 such ships were laid down, but only one was commissioned before the end of World War II. The next 5 units were completed in the postwar years according to the adjusted 29K project.

After the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet Navy needed small displacement ships for sentinel service and guarding small coastal convoys. By personal instruction I.V. Stalin began the development of a tactical and technical task (TT3) for a new TFR with a total displacement of 1,200 tons. After the release of the first watchman of Project 42, the USSR Council of Ministers ordered the Ministry of the Shipbuilding Industry and the Naval Ministry to take control of the development of the Project 50 patrol ship.

Project 50 was a successful type of TFR, which was created as an alternative to the ships of project 42. Displacement was reduced due to the use of a linear GEM scheme (instead of the echelon one on the predecessors) and the abandonment of the fourth 100-mm gun mount. Driving performance and seaworthiness were very good.

Project 159, 159A and 159AE were created as small anti-submarine ships, but in fact they came close to the design-and- missile systems of project 50 in terms of displacement. The composition of artillery and anti-submarine weapons is almost the same as on the military-industrial complex of project 61.

The successors of projects 35 and 159 focused on the fight against submarines, kept many of the “Menomonie” features: the same high speed, the same torpedo as the main weapon, the same “squat” silhouette with minimum add-ons… However, the emergence of the US nuclear submarines with ballistic missiles forced the Soviet Union to reconsider priorities. Now the Soviet Navy’s task was not to allow a potential enemy to their shores at a distance missile salvo. Accordingly, instead of flotillas of destroyers, there is a need in the larger ships of the PLO, are able to successfully combat enemy submarine on the ocean frontiers — not less than 3000 miles from their shores. Large anti-submarine ships (BOD) because of its small size to perform this task but could not. It was necessary to design a completely new ship is seaworthy enough for independent action in the ocean, but it is relatively inexpensive and suitable for large-scale building.

The Project 1135 SKR and its cousins, the Project 1134A (NATO codename Kresta II) and Project 1134B (NATO codename Kara) class BPK (Bolshoi Protivolodochny Korabl - large anti-submarine ships) had been interim designs, hastily redesigned from hulls designed as anti-ship missile platforms. As such, they were deficient in seakeeping, internal volume, and command control facilities.

Terms of reference for the development of the TFR project 1135 (code name — “Thunderbird”) was issued in 1964. A new level of combat capability “Petrel” caused by the latest achievements of the domestic military-industrial complex — primarily racemoramide “Blizzard” and a very powerful hydroacoustic stations (GUS). Fundamentally anti-complex “Snowstorm” was a development of the American system ASROC, but had significantly better performance. Guided missile 85-P had a range of up to 50 km (ASROC about 10 km). As a warhead used a torpedo at-2U. She was dumped at a specified point on the parachute and hitting the water, moving in a spiral, gradually sinking deeper and deeper. The system is active homing all this time has been a continuous search for the submarine; as soon as the instrument has captured the target, the torpedo immediately went to her and increased the speed to 40 knots. Maximum range of the torpedo at-2U was 8 km.

Project 1135 and 1135M was a successful project of a gas turbine SCR capable of operating in the marine zone. The code name is "Petrel". Until 06/06/1977, all ships under construction and commissioned belonged to the BOD class. For the first time on a domestic ship with a relatively small displacement, it was possible to place powerful anti-submarine weapons, including the Metel missile system.

However, in the course of operation of ships of the project 1135 is revealed, and their drawbacks, chief among them is the disparity range anti-submarine missile complex “Storm” and sonar detection devices. No matter how perfect GUS was “Titan” and “VEGA”, they still usually able to establish reliable contact with a submarine of a potential enemy at a distance of 10-15 km, i.e. several times smaller than the flight range of the rocket torpedo. This problem could be solved with a helicopter with the appropriate search equipment, but to place it on Board the ship without radical alterations were possible.

The operational concept of such ships is that they would be operating relatively close to the shoreline, certainly within the perimeters of the Russian Maritime Zones. Their deployments would therefore be short and they would operate under cover of land-based air. Oceanic deployments would be left to the Project 956 Sovremennyy and Project 1155 Udaloy class BPKs.

In the case of the SKR design, the problem lay in combining the provision of a helicopter, stand-off anti-submarine missiles and a comprehensive sonar suite, along with the batteries of anti-ship missiles and air defenses required for the SKR role on a hull of reasonable size. This problem was solved when the P-100 anti-ship and 100-RU anti-submarine missiles were made available for surface ship use. These had been developed for the Project 671RTM submarines The TFR of Project 11540 is a multi-purpose ship that provides air defense for the operational connection of ships from enemy ships and submarines. A patrol ship of this class was designed and built at the Yantar shipyard in Kaliningrad. The first in the series was TFR Undaunted, which was launched in 1993. The other two were laid down - "Yaroslav the Wise" (in some reports it bears the name "Unapproachable") was laid in 1991 and the "Fog" was laid in the summer of 1993.

Project 11351 is a Border patrol ships designed to guard a 200-mile economic zone. The code name for the project is Nereus. Designed on the basis of the TFR of project 1135. Due to the abandonment of the PLRK on the ship, it was possible to place a hangar with the permanent base of the Ka-27PS helicopter.

The project 1135.6 ship is designed to conduct combat operations against surface ships and submarines in ocean and sea areas, as well as to repel air attack attacks, both independently and as part of a combined ship as an escort ship. Patrol ships of this project (according to the Western classification "frigate") are being built in Russia for the Indian Navy. The construction of ships is carried out by the Baltic Shipyard.

At the same time, the question of creating a new TFR of the coastal zone remained open. In this regard, in Zelenodolsk Design Bureau began work on the creation of a small TFR, as the development of the IPC pr.1124, designed under the number 11660 and the code "Cheetah". Although this ship had all the “standard” nomenclature of weapons, its “anti-submarine orientation” already satisfied few. Around the same time (mid-1980s), a competing but more risky project 12440 (code “Thunder”) of the Almaz design bureau with more powerful anti-ship missiles and a helicopter appeared.

Due to well-known circumstances, in the 1990s Russia experienced a deep crisis in all areas, including the military-economic one. In this regard, during the mass withdrawal of ships from the combat strength of the fleet, the construction of new ones was almost completely stopped by the technical condition. This led to the fact that the existing number of frigates did not provide a solution to even the most pressing problems. According to their operational and technical qualities, domestic frigates at the time of the launch of the lead ships of the series were not inferior to the best world models. However, at present, the construction of ships is being delayed so much that there are fears that they will become obsolete during the construction period. With appropriate funding, developed domestic industry allows supplying the Russian fleet with new frigates and build them for export. An example is the construction of frigates, pr. 11356 for the Indian Navy.

After many years of sluggish construction of the lead ship, Project 12441, all work on it was suspended, and then completely stopped. This was caused, among other things, by its inconsistency adopted in the late 1990s. shipbuilding concept. The ship was too small for a full-fledged patrol ship of the ocean zone and, at the same time, turned out to be too large and expensive for the corvette of the coastal zone. After laying the lead ships of the new generation, project 22350 (frigate "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Sergey Gorshkov") and project 20380 (corridor "Stereguschiy"), the construction of Novik was finally stopped.

Shipbuilding Corporation "Ak Bars", created in 2019 on the basis of the Zelenodolsk plant named after A.M. Gorky is clearly determined to oust the established players in the military shipbuilding market. The concept of the new frigate of project 11664 was presented by Ak Bars IC during the exhibition of advanced weapons in Sevastopol on 09 January 2020. Organized for the leadership of the country and the defense industry, the exhibition was closed to the general public. Project 11664 was developed by Zelenodolsk Design Bureau. Previously, the bureau was part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), but in 2019 came under the control of Ak Bars Corporation.

Since 2016, the domestic defense industry has been simultaneously building corvettes of project 20380, their enlarged version of project 20385, patrol modular “non corvette” project 22160 with displacement corvette and modular super corvette project 20386 with displacement of frigate. Standardization? .. not!

The corvette market already has its own players, who are hardly ready to take positions without a fight. Apparently, the main competitor of the new corvette from Ak Bars is project 20380. Currently, construction is underway at two plants (Severnaya Verf and Amursky SZ)six corvettes of three different projects developed by TsMKB Almaz (both shipyards and design bureaus are part of the USC). Four ships are being built ccording to project 20380, one according to project 20385 (the head ship “Thundering” is completing the tests), and one according to project 20386.