2nd Buyan Corvette, The “Volgodonsk”, Accepted Into Russian Navy

 

The Volgodonsk stealth corvette, the second ship of the Project 21630 “Buyan” class, has just joined the Russian navy. The first ship of the Buyan class, the Astrakhan, was commissioned in 2006 and put into service with the Caspian fleet. The Volgodonsk is also due to join the Caspian fleet, and will be transferred there after the winter.

 

These ships are some of the newest corvettes in Russian service, and are designed to attack surface warships. They incorporate stealth features in their design to make them harder to detect by the enemy and have a full arsenal of weapons including two AK-630M2 twin-barreled 30 mm Gatling guns for use against incoming missiles and aircraft, the A-190 100 mm main-gun, the A-215 Grad-M 40-barreled MRLS system (naval version of the famous BM-21 Grad MRLS), the Igla-S short range air-defense missile system, and the SS-N-27 (Klub) multi-role supersonic missile.

 

The Buyan class has a displacement of about 600 tons, a 10 day endurance, a range of 1,500 miles, and is 62 meters in length. The corvette is equipped with the Pozitiv-ME1.2 phased array radar system, has a full EW (Electronic Warfare) suite, and has the Anapa-M dipping sonar. Russia currently has 5 modified Buyan-M corvettes on order, and is expected to have a total of seven such vessels operating in the Caspian fleet by 2015.