Project plan for Russia's Leader-class destroyer to be ready by 2022.

A project plan of a new Leader-class destroyer will be ready by 2022. A keel-laying ceremony will take place after that, Viktor Bursuk, the Russian Navy deputy commander-in-chief, said.

Scale model showing the Project 23560E "Shkval-class" Destroyer (export variant of Leader-class) at Army 2016 exhibition. Twelve ships of the 10,000t "Leader class" are planned to enter service from 2023-25, split between the Northern and Pacific Fleets. They will all be nuclear powered. They will be fitted with the ABM-capable S-500 SAM and Kalibr (SS-N-27) cruise missile.

"As for the Leader destroyer, we are going to launch a project plan in 2019-2020. It will be finished approximately in 2022. The ship will be lain down after that," Bursuk said.

He noted that funds had been allocated for the ship’s construction. "A shipbuilding program provides for this ship’s construction. So all the budgets will be implemented," the deputy commander-in-chief said.
Viktor Chirkov, an adviser to the United Shipbuilding Corporation’s head, said that the Leader-class destroyer would be equipped with a nuclear power unit. "Everything that we have done here will form the foundation for building a Leader-class nuclear-powered destroyer," Chirkov said.

A project plan for the Leader-class destroyer is being prepared by the Severnoye design bureau in St. Petersburg. Igor Ponomarev, the vice-president of the United Shipbuilding Corporation for naval construction, said that the Russian Defense Ministry had already approved the destroyer’s engineering plan.

The future destroyer’s displacement varies from 10,000 to 15,000 tons. According to Bursuk, the Leader-class destroyer will be equipped with a nuclear power plant. Earlier, Bursuk said that the destroyer’s construction could begin after 2020.

 Scale model showing the Project 23560E "Shkval-class" Destroyer (export variant of Leader-class) at Army 2016 exhibition. Twelve ships of the 10,000t "Leader class" are planned to enter service from 2023-25, split between the Northern and Pacific Fleets. They will all be nuclear powered. They will be fitted with the ABM-capable S-500 SAM and Kalibr (SS-N-27) cruise missile.

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