As a result of assuring political balance after presidency elections, Ukraine plans to strenghth its navy. 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 process 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.
