Keel Laying for Final Russian Navy Project 21631 Buyan-M Corvette.

A keel laying ceremony was held at the Gorky shipyard in Zelenodolsk for the Russian Navy twelfth (and, apparently, final) Project 21631 corvette (Russian designation: small missile ship) with the hull number 642. The corvette will be named "Stavropol". It was reported during the ceremony that the transfer of the ship to the Navy is scheduled for 2023.

Keel laying ceremony for the final Project 21631 Buyan-M Corvette of the Russian Navy at Zelenodolsk shipyard.

The small missile ship (MRK) "Stavropol" (serial number 642) became the third and last ship laid in the framework of the contract issued on September 7, 2016 by the Ministry of Defense of Russia to Zelenodolsky Plant to build for the Russian Navy three more small missile ships of project 21631 (with factory numbers from 640 to 642) in addition to the nine ordered earlier. The first on this contract was the "Grad" (hull number 640), which was laid in Zelenodolsk on April 24, 2017, the second - "Naro-Fominsk" (hull number 641), laid February 23, 2018.

Of the nine vessels previously built by Zelenodolsk, six units have already been transferred to the fleet. The first two: Grad Sviyazhsk and Uglich (hullt numbers 631 and 632), built in Zelenodolsk, were introduced to the Caspian Flotilla of the Russian Navy on July 27, 2014, and the third Great Ustyug (hull number 633) - commissioned the Caspian Flotilla on December 19, 2014.

Now the "Grad Sviyazhsk" and "Great Ustyug" are on service in the Mediterranean. The fourth and fifth corvettes of Project 21631 "Zeleni Dol" (serial number 634) and Serpukhov (hull number 635) were built in Zelenodolsk under a contract dated October 19, 2012 and became part of the Black Sea Fleet on December 12, In October 2016, both ships went to the Baltic Fleet. June 1, 2018 in the Black Sea Fleet was introduced the sixth "Vyshny Volochek" (hull number 636).

Guided missile corvettes of project 21631 are armed with Kalibr missiles (SS-N-27 Sizzler by NATO classification). They are kept in the eight-cell 3S14 vertical launcher. Kalibr strikes with cruise missiles at naval (3M-54) and ground (3M-14) targets. The boats are armed with 100mm artillery guns A-190 and small-caliber antiaircraft artillery AK-630-2 Duet complexes. They also carry launchers of Gibka 3M-47 complex. The length of the corvette is 75 meters, the displacement is 949 tons, the speed is 25 knots. Autonomous navigation is ten days, the range is 2.5 thousand miles. The crew comprises 52 men.