Admiral Grigorovich

A Russian Black Sea Fleet frigate class, the Admiral Grigorovich (Project 11356R/Krivak V) delivers Kalibr cruise-missile land-attack strikes and provides multirole escort — a workhorse of Moscow's naval strike from the Black Sea.

Overview

The Admiral Grigorovich class, known in NATO reporting as Krivak V, is a guided-missile frigate built for the Russian Navy at the Yantar Shipyard in Kaliningrad. Three ships entered service between 2016 and 2017, all assigned to the Black Sea Fleet. Each hull carries an eight-cell vertical launch system (VLS) for Kalibr-NK land-attack and anti-ship cruise missiles, giving the small class a strategic reach that has been used repeatedly against targets in Syria and Ukraine. Its multi-role suite also includes a medium-range surface-to-air missile system, anti-submarine torpedoes and a helicopter, making it a self-contained patrol and escort asset.

Development

The Project 11356R design is an evolution of the earlier Talwar-class (Project 11356) frigates built for the Indian Navy. The Russian Navy ordered six hulls, but only three were completed — the lead ship Admiral Grigorovich commissioned on 11 March 2016, followed by Admiral Essen (June 2016) and Admiral Makarov (December 2017) according to Wikipedia. The 2014 rupture in defence ties with Ukraine cut off the supply of Zorya-Mashproekt gas-turbine engines that powered the class, and the Russian industrial base proved unable to produce a domestic substitute in time to complete the second batch, as detailed by GlobalSecurity.org. The two unfinished hulls were eventually sold to India, completing their Talwar-class buy, while Russia’s own frigate program was capped at three Black Sea hulls.

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