The High Command of the Russian Navy is considering the possibility of ordering several frigates of the Admiral Gorshkov type (Project 22350) from the United Shipbuilding Corporation.
If the appropriate agreements are reached, the new ships will be commissioned to build the St. Petersburg shipyard "Severnaya Verf".
The possibility of increasing the order to three or four ships of this project is also being considered. The production capacity of the enterprise allows to meet the needs of the Russian Navy in ships of this type, since at least eight frigates of the project 22350 can be built simultaneously at the shipyards.
Earlier it was reported about the interest of the Russian military in eight ships of this type. Then, however, due to lack of funds, the number of negotiated frigates was reduced to four.
The program of equipping the navy approved by the Russian government for the period up to 2020 provided for the construction of eight frigates of project 22350. To date, only the lead ship of the Admiral Gorshkov series has been introduced into the fleet. The second frigate, the Admiral Kasatonov, is to be built by the autumn of 2019. Complete the series plan to 2022.
The length of the frigate of the project 22350 is 135 meters, width - 16 meters, speed - up to 29 knots, run autonomy - up to 30 days. The number of crew - up to 210 people. The ship is armed with 16 Onyx medium-range anti-ship missiles or Caliber cruise missiles. Also, the frigate is equipped with an anti-aircraft missile system with the installation of the Polymer-Redut vertical launch.
In the future, the project 22350 will be replaced by a series of ships of the project 22350M, which in the shipbuilding industry received the nickname “Super Gorshkov”, the need of the Russian Navy in which is estimated at 10 frigates. These ships with a displacement of about 8000 tons should take an intermediate place between frigates with a displacement of 4500-5000 tons and promising destroyers.
