RUSSIA: The construction of the first Project 11356 frigate for Russia's Black Sea Fleet will begin at the Yantar Shipyard in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad on Saturday, a spokesman for the Russian Navy said.
Yantar won a tender to build three Project 11356 frigates in October. The Black Sea Fleet chief earlier told RIA Novosti the construction would begin in January 2011.
The ship will be named Admiral Grigorovich after Russia's Naval Minister Ivan Grigorovich, who was in office in 1911-1917, the spokesman said.
The frigate, with a displacement of 4,000 tons, will be equipped with a 100-mm gun, a Shtil surface-to-air missile system, two Kashtan air-defense gun/missile systems, two twin 533-mm torpedo launchers, and an anti-submarine warfare helicopter.
The Russian Navy chief, Adm. Vladimir Vysotsky, earlier said one or two Project 11356 frigates will join the Black Sea Fleet every year starting 2013.
Yantar is currently building three Project 11356 frigates for the Indian Navy under a $1.6-billion contract signed in 2007. The first warship, which was floated out last November, will be handed over to India in mid-2011. The two others will be delivered by the end of 2012.
Russia has previously built three Talwar-class frigates for India – INS Talwar (Sword), INS Trishul (Trident), and the INS Tabar (Axe).
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