According to information published by Tass on June 17, 2022, the Russian Navy will give up an additional series of six Project 22160 patrol ships (corvettes) because their tactical and technical characteristics do not match the combat conditions of application.
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Russian Project 22160 patrol ship Sergey Kotov (Picture source: bmpd)
The spokesman said, noting that the customer intends to abandon the additional six units of Project 22160 due to their non-compliance with the tactical and technical qualities for combat conditions of operation.
He explained that the military sailors were not fully satisfied with the corvettes' characteristics and equipment tested during their combat use - insufficient seaworthiness, light armor, and vulnerability of propulsion systems, as well as weak anti-aircraft weaponry.
Earlier, Andrey Dyachkov, director-general of the Northern Design and Engineering Bureau, which developed the 22160 Project, told TASS in an interview that the first six ships of the series were built in accordance with the technical specifications issued by the customer, the Russian Navy. According to him, the optimal composition of the ship's armament and equipment was chosen precisely for the goals and tasks defined by the fleet.
Plans to increase the series from six to 12 units were reported in 2014. A TASS source said that by the end of this year, the four Black Sea corvettes of Project 22160 (Vasily Bykov, Dmitry Rogachev, Pavel Derzhavin, and Sergey Kotov) will be enhanced with the installation of Tor-M2KM anti-aircraft defense systems based on their participation in a special operation. This December, the Black Sea Fleet is expecting the corvette Nikolay Sipyagin, and next year the last unit of the Viktor Velikiy series.
About Tor-M2KM anti-aircraft defense system
The Tor-M2KM is a self-contained fighting module version of the system that can be mounted in various locations.
In October 2016, it was loaded onto the helipad of the Admiral Grigorovich frigate by means of an ordinary wharf crane and fixed in position with steel chains to fire at simulated cruise missiles while the ship was underway.
This could give advanced SAM capabilities to vessels without the capacity to install the larger and heavier Kinzhal system; it can also be mounted on a truck, building roof, or any horizontal surface at least 2.5 m wide and 7.1 m long.
The module weighs 15 tons and contains all equipment needed to operate without any external support. It can go from standby to full alert in 3 minutes and acquire 144 air targets while simultaneously tracking the 20 most dangerous ones marked for priority by the two-man crew.
