Breaking news
Russia Transferred a Tarantul class Missile Corvette (P-32 Project 12421 Molniya) to Egypt.
| 2015
| |
|||
| a | |||
Naval Forces News - Egypt |
|||
Russia
Transferred a Tarantul class Missile Corvette (P-32 Project 12421 Molniya)
to Egypt |
|||
Egypt
continues to strengthen its navy at an impressive pace: Following the
recent delivery of two Ambassador
MK III FMC from the United States, the procurement of a FREMM
Frigate from France (plus four Gowind class corvettes on order),
news has emerged that the Egyptian Navy just procured the Tarantul class
missile corvette P-32 (Project 12421 Molniya) from Russia. |
|||
 P-32 Missile Corvette was officially handed over to the Egyptian Navy on August 10 2015 in the port of Alexandria. |
|||
|
The P-32
is the only Project 12421 built to date. It is an export variant of
the Project 12411 (NATO reporting name Tarantul III) built for the Soviet
and Russian navy. The vessel was built by the Russian Vympel Shipyard. The in addition to being the only vessel of its class/Project ever built, P-32 is also quite unique in that it is fitted with P-270 Moskit supersonic ramjet powered anti-ship cruise missiles (3M80 / NATO reporting name: SS-N-22 Sunburn). So far the only export customer for this missile (in addition to Russian Navy) was the PLAN (Chinese Navy) who acquired SS-N-22 for its Project 956E / 956EM destroyers. With a maximum range of 120 Km, P-270 Moskit missiles fly at Mach 3 thanks to its four ramjet engines. P-32 can launch four P-270 missiles. |
 P-32 Missile Corvette (Project 12421) during the Suez Canal celebrations on August 6 2015 (then still with a Russian Navy crew onboard). Picture via bmpd/RT |
|||
P-32
keel was laid at Vympel shipyard in the late 1980ies and was completed
in 2000. It was then handed over to the Russian Navy but never formally
inducted for Russian Navy service as the goal was to find an export customer.
P-32 was originally inteded to be sold to Turkmenistan in 2006 but the
deal never went through. In 2010, P-32 was introduced in the Caspian flotilla of the Russian Navy (where, incidentally, it also was virtually non-operational), and in 2013 it was transferred to the Baltic Fleet. |
|||
 P-32 Missile Corvette can deploy 4x P-270 Moskit supersonic ramjet powered anti-ship cruise missiles (3M80 / NATO reporting name: SS-N-22 Sunburn) |
|||
In
the first half of July 2015, P-32 missile corvette was seen leaving the
Baltic escorted with a tug and headed to the Mediterranean Sea. At the
end of the month the boat arrived at the port of Alexandria. It is reported
that Egypt showed interest in the vessel from 2014. The procurement contract
was eventually signed in 2015. The vessel has a range of 1,700 nautical miles (3,100 km; 2,000 mi) with 44 crew members on board. It is fitted with MR-123 "Vympel" fire control radar, 2x AK-630 30mm CIWS and an AK-176 76mm main gun. |
|||