Translated material
"Modern", even more modern
Severnaya Verf handed over a new destroyer to China
At the end of last week, the Severnaya Verf shipyard handed over a Project 956EM destroyer to the People's Republic of China.The history of this ship began on January 2, 2002, when China placed a contract for the purchase of two such destroyers. It is curious that Rosoboronexport, which has never confirmed or denied reports of Chinese transactions, actively sent out press releases at that time. It is clear that this was done after the “go-ahead” from the Chinese. The cost of the contract was even named - $1.4 billion.
This was the second contract of this kind. The first, also for two Project 956E destroyers, was concluded back in 1997. Its cost exceeded $1 billion. These two destroyers were built by Severnaya Verf and transferred to China in 1999-2000. Apparently, the Chinese were quite satisfied with them, because they made another order. During its implementation, components of various levels were supplied by about 1,800 Russian enterprises.
The difference between the commissioned ship, the predecessor of which were ships of the Sovremenny type, is that it has enhanced missile armament: the Moskit complex is made according to the altitude flight profile - its range has been doubled, to 240 km. In addition, the new destroyer has enhanced air defense - instead of the Shtil anti-aircraft missile system, it installed Shtil-1, which was tested on frigates for India. In addition to weapons systems, navigation, radar equipment and main power plant control equipment have been modernized.
The Baltic Shipyard, which then still belonged to businessman Alexander Nesis, and Severnaya Verf fought for this Chinese contract. If we take into account the “superstructure” of these factories, then the war was between the ICT group and Boris Kuzyk’s “New Programs and Concepts”. The decisive factor in the choice of the Chinese was the fact that such destroyers have always been built by Severnaya Verf, one of the largest shipbuilding enterprises in Russia. The first ship was delivered in December last year.
The completion of a major Russian-Chinese deal has once again led to talk of a decline in arms trade between the two countries. “If we talk about arms transfers, then in 2004-2006 there was not just no decline, but, on the contrary, there was a surge, an apogee,” says Konstantin Makienko, deputy director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies. — During this time, Russia transferred 24 Su-30K2 fighters, eight submarines (an absolutely unprecedented case), two destroyers, and many aircraft engines to the PRC. But in terms of contracts, one can really state a certain pause - China is not yet purchasing new combat platforms and systems.”
Indeed, China needs to digest all the weapons supplied by Russia, as they say. We need to train people to work with modern technology. The same Project 956 destroyers are very difficult, especially their boiler-turbine setup. In our fleet, conscript sailors were unable to operate them properly. Today China quite rightly demands an increase in the technological level of the products it supplies. But Russia, says Konstantin Makienko, has become more attentive to its own interests. In the 1990s, Russia simply did not have a wide choice of partners - the entire defense-industrial complex lived at the expense of China and India.
Today, firstly, the state defense order is growing. The same JSC Shipbuilding Plant Severnaya Verf (the main shareholders are JSC United Industrial Corporation - 72.23%, and the state - 20.96%) received large contracts for the serial construction of new generation surface combat ships for the Russian The Navy includes Project 22350 frigates, Project 20380 corvettes, Project 18280 communications vessel, and Project 21270 crew boat. The total volume of orders carried out by Severnaya Verf exceeds $2 billion.
Secondly, new large-scale buyers of Russian weapons have appeared. This year alone, two very large package deals were concluded - with Algeria for $7.5 billion and Venezuela for $3 billion, not counting various options. Russia is no longer so dependent on Chinese purchases. This means it can look at how these purchases will affect the security of Russia itself.
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The Project 956 destroyer was developed by the Northern Design Bureau (St. Petersburg). The length of the ship is 156.5 m, width is 17.2 m, total displacement is 8440 tons, full speed is 31-32 knots. The ships are equipped with the Shtil-1 anti-aircraft complex with 3M317 missiles, a specially developed modification of the Moskit-M anti-ship supersonic missiles with an increased flight range, and 3M87E Kashtan missile and artillery systems.