Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has initiated works on building at least four corvettes for the country’s navy, the ministry’s official news agency ArmyInform reported on Sept. 18.
The works will start with resuming the construction of the Volodymyr the Great corvette as the lead vessel of Project 58250 class of perspective warships, the building of which were initiated as far back as in 2011 to almost no progress in the following years.
The Hr 7.7 billion program ($310 million) particularly envisages launching the Volodymyr the Great by the end of 2023. The launch timeline for the next three corvettes will be defined “on completion of the lead ship’s construction,” the official message states, adding that the building had been re-launched by order of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The program to build four Project 58250 class corvettes by 2021 was initially signed off in late 2011.
In general, Project 58250 class vessels were designed as 2,620-ton multipurpose corvettes able to build up the speed of up to 32 knots (59 kilometers per hour) with an operational range of 4,000 nautical miles. Besides, they are able to support their 108-strong crews for 30 days in independent sailing.
They were designed to carry a 76-millimeter cannon OTO Melara, a Rheinmetall GDM-008 close-in weapon system, as MU90 Impact anti-submarine torpedos, Exocet anti-ship missiles, and Aster air defense missiles. Besides, one of the class’ vessels was designed to be carrying NH90 or Kamov Ka-27 helicopters.
A sketch image of a Project 58250 class corvette (Ukraine's Ministry of Defense)
At that time, the government intended to allocate as much as Hr 16.2 billion ($660 million in today’s prices) on vessels and basing infrastructure and munitions to them. The contract was won by Mykolaiv-based Black Sea Shipyard.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion in Crimea and the subsequent war in Donbas, the program was put on hold for the sake of saving funds for ground forces opposing Russian proxies in the country’s east.
By 2017, the class’ lead ship Volodymyr the Great was ready only by 17 percent, mostly in terms of the vessel’s hull, and the building was expected to be completed only by 2028.
According to Ukraine’s top navy commander Admiral Ihor Voronchenko, the government then failed to allocate Hr 1,3 billion for the lead ship envisaged in the state budget.
In July 2019, then-Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak stated that the corvette was 32 percent complete, although as much as Hr 2.2 billion funding were still required for the program.
According to Ukraine’s naval development strategy published in early 2019, new Ukrainian corvettes are to take the lead of a “mosquito fleet” of smaller, highly-maneuvrable vessels, mostly missile boats expected to be built by 2035.
As Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Andriy Tarasov told the Kyiv Post in an interview in late December 2018, Ukraine needs at least four modern corvettes to defend its waters.
