The Severnaya shipyard in Saint Petersburg delivered its fifth Steregushchiy corvette (project 20381, 105 metres, 2,200 tonnes, 8 FK SS-N-25) to the Russian Navy in the second week of May. The keel of the multi-purpose combat ship was laid a good eight years ago, albeit under the initially planned name "Retiviy". It now bears the name "Merkury", reminiscent of a rather symbolic gun brig for the Russian navy, which was able to hold its own against two Turkish frigates off the Dardanelles in 1829 and escape from enemy forces.
Baltic Sea
The construction plans were also still those of the Baltic Sea Steregushchiys of projects 20380 (type ship) and 20381 ("Soobrazitelny", "Stoikiy" and "Boikiy") delivered to date for the Baltic Fleet - they differ only in the air defence system in front of the bridge superstructures. "Strogiy", construction number 6, is also at an advanced stage of construction shortly before acceptance.
Pacific
Four more Steregushchiys were built and delivered for the Pacific Fleet at the Komsomolsk shipyard on the Amur 600 kilometres north of Vladivostok, such as the "Sovershenny", "Gromky" and "Aldar Tsydenzhapov", with "Rezky" probably still undergoing acceptance testing.
Integrated main mast
In the meantime, an integrated main mast has encased free-standing sensors and rendered the striking, black-painted bipod mast - because it stands in the centre of the exhaust stoma - superfluous. This applies to the last two construction numbers.
Three Steregushchiys: centre initial model - left integral mast - right Steregushchiy-II. Assembly: navalanalysis.com
Further development
Incidentally, this mast was apparently taken over from the development of the Steregushchiy II class (type ship: "Gremyashchy", project 20385) - however, the construction of this more heavily armed variant (8 FK SS-N-27/30 Kalibr) was cancelled for cost reasons after only two units had been started. Construction number 2 "Provorny" was also severely damaged by a fire on the Severnaya Verf in December 2021, so that the type ship is currently in service with the Pacific Fleet as a single driver. Just over two years ago, however, it was also announced that the programme would be resumed and that four more corvettes of this type would be laid down for the Pacific Fleet in Komsomolsk on the Amur and handed over to the Navy between 2024 and 2028. Three units are currently under construction there.
Judging by the construction series, probably a successful multi-purpose corvette for temperate marginal seas and beyond!
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Moin,
on the part of the Russian design offices (ZMKB "Almaz" = Central Maritime Design Bureau "Almaz" (ЦМКБ "Алмаз" = Централное морское конструкторское бюро "Алмаз") of these corvettes there is NO project number 20381. This project number was invented by the creators of "JANE's Fighting Ships", apparently to reflect changes in the course of the construction of these corvettes.
It should be added that the corvette "Merkuriy" ("Меркурий") entered the service of the Russian Black Sea Fleet; on 11 May 2023, the protocol on the completion of state trials of the corvette "Merkuriy" ("Меркурий") was signed by the Chairman of the State Acquisition Commission, Captain 1st Rank Viktor Ivanov (Виктор Иванов), and on 13 May 2023, the 240th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the corvette "Merkuriy" ("Меркурий") was commissioned by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.On 13 May 2023, the 240th anniversary of the founding of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the corvette "Merkuriy" ("Меркурий") was commissioned into the service of the Russian Naval Fleet (and specifically the Russian Black Sea Fleet) by the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Naval Fleet Admiral Nikolai Anatolyevich Yevmenov (Николай Анатольевич Евменов) in the port of Baltiysk.
The correct full name of the Pacific Fleet corvette mentioned above is "Geroy Rossiyskoy Federatsii Aldar Tsydenzhapov" ("Герой Российской Федерации Алдар Цыденжапов").
For the sake of convenience, I will use the standard NATO spelling for Russian warship names.