VLADIVOSTOK, December 2. /TASS/: The Project 20380 latest corvette Aldar Tsydenzhapov built for Russia’s Pacific Fleet delivered artillery fire against coastal targets and checked its air defense weapons during state trials in the Sea of Japan, the Fleet’s press office reported on Wednesday.
"At the combat training range near Zheltukhin Island, the ship conducted artillery fire to suppress invisible coastal targets hidden by the terrain, eliminating the targets simulating a notional enemy’s sheltered fire emplacements and combat hardware, and visible targets on the coastline. The fire was delivered from a 100mm A-190 multi-purpose shipborne artillery gun," the press office said in a statement.
Also, pilots of Russia’s Aerospace Force earlier checked the reliability of the operation of the latest ship’s systems in the Sea of Japan. At this stage of the state trials, three Tu-22M3 strategic missile-carrying bombers and Su-35 fighter jets of the fighter aviation regiment from the Eastern Military District’s Air Force and Air Defense Army attacked the corvette from various altitudes and directions, the statement says.
The aircraft employed passive jamming and carried out measures to suppress the ship’s radio-technical and communications systems. In the course of joint operations, the groupings of the Navy and the Aerospace Force were sharpening the skills of multi-service force inter-operability, the press office said.
The Project 20380 third corvette Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov developed by the Almaz Central Design Bureau of Marine Engineering (St. Petersburg) is designed to accomplish green-water missions, fight enemy surface ships and submarines and provide artillery support for amphibious assault operations.
The corvette incorporates the latest solutions for reducing its physical fields. In particular, the shipbuilders significantly reduced its radar signature during its construction, using radio absorption materials and specially designing the ship’s hull and superstructure.
Project 20380 ships are armed with multi-purpose artillery guns, surface-to-air missile/artillery systems, supersonic missiles and automatic artillery launchers. The Project 20380 corvettes can carry a Ka-27 helicopter. They displace 2,200 tonnes and have a crew of 99.
The corvette Aldar Tsydenzhapov is set to be accepted for service in Russia’s Pacific Fleet until the end of this year.
