Russia unveils Karakurt-E: transforming missile boats into advanced anti-submarine ships.

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine, which has escalated into a full-scale proxy war between Russia and NATO, has prompted a reevaluation of military priorities, including the types of armaments that are genuinely necessary versus those best left as prototypes. At the "Army-2024" forum, a new ship project was unveiled, one that the defense community has long urged the Russian Ministry of Defense to develop.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link

A model of the Project 22800E corvette at Army 2024 in Moscow, Russia. (Picture source: ВЗГЛЯД)

The primary challenge in deploying Russia's sea-based nuclear component lies in safely escorting SSBNs from naval bases to patrol areas. The U.S. Navy's Virginia-class submarines, designed to hunt down enemy SSBNs, pose a significant threat.

These submarines can silently stalk Russian SSBNs, waiting to strike with torpedoes or laying mines in critical areas. To protect the waters surrounding SSBN bases, Russia's Navy requires a division of minesweepers and a division of small anti-submarine ships. However, the aging fleet of small anti-submarine ships, specifically Projects 1124 and 1331M, is nearing the end of its service life.

While Russia is building corvettes, the process is slow due to the complexity and extensive armament these ships carry. The absence of destroyers has further strained the capabilities of these second-rank ships, which are now expected to perform tasks typically assigned to larger vessels.

Given the prolonged conflict and Western sanctions, Russia cannot afford lengthy construction projects. The new small anti-submarine ship must incorporate proven technologies and be assembled quickly at multiple shipyards. There are two potential approaches to achieve this.

The first involves simplifying the existing Project 20380/20385 corvettes by removing non-essential armaments and focusing solely on anti-submarine warfare (ASW), which would reduce displacement, cost, and construction time. The second approach is to develop a new small ASW ship based on the Project 22800 "Karakurt" missile boat. This ship, built using entirely domestic components at three shipyards, has been a favored platform among military experts for years.

The "Army-2024" forum introduced the Project 28000-E, a small ASW ship based on the "Karakurt." Unlike its predecessor, this ship features several key design changes, including a hull-mounted sonar array, a modified power plant with four water-jet engines, and a reduced top speed from 32 to 26 knots.

However, the ship compensates for this with new capabilities, such as the "Paket-NK" anti-torpedo system and a modular payload that can include unmanned underwater vehicles for mine countermeasures.

This transformation of the missile boat into an ASW corvette enables the ship to monitor large maritime areas acoustically, engage enemy submarines independently, or guide naval aviation to their targets.