Russian Navy has taken delivery of Project 21631 Buyan-M class missile corvette Ingushetia.

A ceremony of accepting the advanced Project 21631 Buyan-M class missile corvette Ingushetia has taken place in Sevastopol in Crimea, the Defense Ministry’s press office said, on December 31, 2019.

Russian Navy Project 21631 Buyan-M missile corvette. (Picture source Russian Defence Blog)

"After the flag-raising ceremony, the ship’s crew will start to practice special tasks and in January 2020 it will begin to execute the combat training program," the press office said.

The Buyan class, Russian designations Project 21630 Buyan and Project 21631 Buyan-M, are series of corvettes (small artillery and missile ships in Russian classification) developed by Zelenodolsk Design Bureau for the Russian Navy.

The 900-ton class Project 21631 Buyan-M is a stretched version of the 500-ton Buyan class gunboat. The Buyan-M features a larger and more sophisticated weapons payload including state-of-the-art missile systems. The 74-meter longship is intended to perform anti-surface warfare (ASuW) combat missions with secondary air defense capability thanks to four Igla-1M surface-to-air missiles (SAM).

The Buyan-M weapon system consists of a single A-190 100mm cannon, two AK-630M anti-aircraft guns, eight Club-S Kalibr anti-ship missiles, and four Igla-1M SAMs mounted on a 3M47 Gibka launcher. Besides, these vessels are equipped with a variety of 14.5mm and 7.62mm machine guns.