Russia is preparing to soon transfer a new frigate of Project 11356R to the Indian Navy, which is being built at the Yantar Shipyard. This is reported by The Times of India, citing sources in the Indian Ministry of Defense.
According to them, the vessel, named "Tushill", will be handed over to the Indian crew by the end of November. The official acceptance of the vessel by Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will take place in early December, when he arrives in Russia to participate in the meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation between India and Russia.
The second frigate, "Tamal", will be handed over at the beginning of next year. Both stealth frigates will be equipped with weapons, including supersonic cruise missiles BrahMos, as well as sensors for performing various tasks.
Such ships are also in service with Moscow: New Delhi will receive, as emphasized in the publication, a version of Project 11356R "Grigorovich class", that is, the one that was originally developed for internal use in the Russian Navy, and not for export.
Project 11356
Project 11356 is a development of the Northern Design Bureau based on the Indian Project 11356 type "Talwar." It was originally created to accelerate the replenishment of the ship composition of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy, but then the project was transferred to the category of export for the construction and supply of vessels to foreign stakeholders.
"Talwars" in the amount of six pieces were built under the Indian order at the Yantar Shipyard and the Baltic Shipyard from 1999 to 2003. The Russian refined export version of this idea is a multi-purpose frigate with a small displacement of 4035 tons and a balanced set of weapons, capable of covering ships from attacks by air, surface and underwater enemies. It develops a speed of up to 30 knots, can go on a mission from the base to a distance of up to 4850 nautical miles, and can autonomously stay at sea for up to 30 days together with a crew of 220 people.
It can conduct active search and destruction of surface ships and submarines, as well as deliver high-precision missile strikes against critical ground targets of the enemy. In peacetime, such a frigate is designed to participate in international operations to maintain peace and law and order and support the interests of the state in remote maritime areas.
The basis of the strike missile armament of the ships of the project is made up of universal launchers 3S14, capable of using missiles 3M-54TE, 3M-14TE, and "Yakhont."
Armament of ships of Project 11356:
- integrated missile system "Club – N": firing range — 300 km, ammunition load — 8 missiles;
- multi-channel SAM "Shtil – 1": firing range — 50 km, ammunition load — 24 missiles;
- artillery installation A-190E-01 1x1 100 mm: firing range — 22 km;
- two artillery installations AK-630M 2x6 30 mm: firing range — 5 km;
- anti-submarine torpedo complex "Paket E/NK" 2x4 327 mm: firing range — 20 km;
- 3D radar "Fregat - M2EM": detection range — 300 km;
- radar fire control system 5P-10-03 "Puma";
- hydroacoustic complex MGK 335EM — 03;
- hangar and helipad for basing a helicopter weighing 12 tons.
Project 11356R
For internal use by the Russian Navy, there is a multi-purpose modernized version of the development of the Northern Design Bureau: Project 11356R. Initially, in 2010, it was planned to build six such ships for the Black Sea Fleet, but Russia managed to complete only three of them.
This is the lead ship of Project 11356R "Admiral Grigorovich", as well as the frigates "Admiral Essen" and "Admiral Makarov". All of them are now serving in the Russian Navy. Their armament includes Kalibr-NK cruise missiles, Shtil-1 self-defense missile systems, A-190 artillery systems, anti-aircraft artillery, rocket bomb launchers, torpedoes, deck-based Ka-27 or Ka-31 helicopters.
Due to problems with the supply of gas turbine engines from the territory of Ukraine in the mid-2010s, the construction of the remaining three ships of the project — "Admiral Butakov", "Admiral Istomin" and "Admiral Kornilov" — was frozen. In 2018, Russia signed a contract with India for the construction of four ships of Project 11356. Two of them are being built in Goa at Goa Shipyard Limited, two in Kaliningrad. Thus, "Admiral Butakov" became the Indian "Tushill", and "Admiral Istomin" is now called "Tamal".
However, a number of Russian military experts, in particular, Sergei Marzhetsky, believes that Russia should take care of ensuring its own security with the help of multifunctional frigates of Project 11356R.
Read materials on the topic:
Bloomberg: India became the second largest supplier of critical technologies for Russia
