Non-Subscriber ExtractIMDS 2009: Russia cuts two frigate programmes |
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By Tim Fish
03 July 2009
The RFN commissioned a second Neustrashimy-class frigate, Yaroslav Mudryy, on 19 June, some 18 years after the vessel was launched at Yantar's Kaliningrad shipyard. (IHS Jane's/Tim Fish)
The Russian Federation Navy (RFN) has abandoned plans to acquire two still-incomplete frigates that have languished in a Kaliningrad shipyard since the 1990s, Jane's has learned.
The Neustrashimy-class (Project 1154) frigate Tuman and the Grom-class (Project 1244.1) frigate Borodino will instead be offered for sale overseas.
However, prospects for the equally long-awaited Gepard-class (Project 11661) frigate Dagestan , which was laid down at the Zelenodolsk Shipyard in Tatarstan in 1994, are more promising. The RFN is expected to commission the vessel in 2010 or 2011.
Speaking to Jane's at the International Maritime Defence Show (IMDS) in St Petersburg on 24 June, a spokesman for Zelenodolsk said that Dagestan had remained incomplete for 15 years due to "financial problems".
The light frigate - the second of a class built to a 1,930-ton (full load) design - would now be launched towards the end of 2009 or early in 2010 and commissioned a year or so later, he said.