New uniform for "Admiral Vinogradov"
So, judging by a bunch of joyful statements in the media, the former large anti-submarine ship of project 1155 "Admiral Vinogradov" will be finalized, modernized, rearmed and become a frigate. This will happen in 2025, after which the new frigate will continue to serve in the Pacific Ocean.
Speaking the language of the neighbors, let's try to understand whether this is a win or is it a nuisance? In general, the question is quite complicated, so you will have to rummage through a bunch of information related to both the Project 1155 ship and what they plan to do with it.
The Soviet large anti-submarine ship, also known as the Russian multi-purpose frigate of the 1st rank of project 1155M of the far sea and ocean zone with guided missile weapons, was laid down at the Yantar Baltic shipbuilding plant in Kaliningrad on February 5, 1986. Launched on June 4, 1987. Entered service December 30, 1988, commissioned into the Pacific fleet May 1 1989 year.
That is, today the ship is 33 years old. For comparison, the American cruisers of the Ticonderoga class, the Ticonderoga itself and the Vincennes were decommissioned and disposed of after 37 and 26 years, respectively. As they say, Vinogradov has a "golden mean".
"Admiral Vinogradov" came for repairs there, to the "Dalzavod Ship Repair Center" in Vladivostok. The same place where Marshal Shaposhnikov was modernized.
A few words should be said about the first modernization of the Project 1155 ship. The launchers of the Rastrub-B anti-submarine missile and torpedo complex (2x4) were replaced with Uran anti-ship missile launchers (2x4) and 3S14 launchers (2x8) for Caliber or Onyx. Removed one 100-mm gun mount. The ship has become stronger in the universal attacking plan, but the air defense has remained frankly outdated: the Kinzhal air defense system (8x8), which is completely irrelevant today.
Now comes "Admiral Vinogradov".
He will have to modernize the power plant, main engines, weapons and all the main mechanisms and systems, which, according to the schedule, require major or medium repairs.
The most terrible hemorrhoids with engines and turbines. "Admiral Vinogradov" is equipped with two marching gas turbine diesel engines with a capacity of 22 hp. each and two afterburner gas turbine engines with a capacity of 500 hp.
The turbines are reversible, made by the Zorya-Mashproekt concern in Nikolaev. With spare parts, everything is sad, about the same as with diesel engines from the Russian NPO Saturn, which promised to bring to mind the Russian analogue of the M-70, the so-called M-70FRU. In the case of Marshal Shaposhnikov, the Ukrainian gas turbine engines were not replaced by Russian ones. What will happen to Vinogradov is a question.
As for the replacement of the weapons complex, everything here is a little richer than that of Shaposhnikov.
Instead of the outdated Dirk, the Shtil-1 air defense system will be installed. There is information that "Calm" will be installed in the nose, cutting down 4 "Dagger" launchers from there. In place of the Dirk, one launch module for 12 Calm cells will quite normally stand up. If you remove 2 RBU-6000 Smerch-2 bombers in the stern, which is also not modern weapons (in service since 1961), then 12 more cells can be placed in the stern. That is, 2 modules for 24 launch cells. Considering that Shtil does not need a separate radar, the complex, through the ship's fire control system KMSUO 3R91E1, "sits" on any ship's radar, everything is optimistic.
In such quantities, "Shtil-1" is a very decent air defense system, capable of solving many tasks to repel an air threat. Considering that Shtil-1 uses the 9M317ME missile, which is a modification of the 9M317 Buk air defense missile system and can defend the ship 360 degrees along the horizon, this is much more acceptable and effective than Kortik, which showed its failure back in the nineties.
Launchers of the Caliber-NK complex.
On Shaposhnikov, PU 3S-14E were installed instead of one turret of the AK-100 artillery mount. The tower was dismantled along with the mechanisms for turning and supplying ammunition, and in its place fit 2 launchers for 8 missiles each. At Vinogradov, they want to repeat this operation, plus add 2 more launchers of 8 missiles somewhere behind the helicopter hangar. So far, there is no exact data, but there is simply nowhere else to shove the launchers.
As a result, it turns out that Vinogradov will carry 36 P-800, Caliber and Zircon missiles. This is quite a decent figure, at the world level for ships of this class, and even more than many.
Anti-ship missiles "Uranus"
Probably, the X-35 should be called an "anti-corvette" missile, since it is designed to destroy ships with a displacement of up to 5000 tons. You can’t call this weapon new, since the X-35 has been developed since 1977, and it was put into service only in 2003. But the seeker is active, radar, capable of operating in conditions of opposition, there is a warhead with a thermal seeker. The mass of the warhead is 145 kg, which will really make life difficult for both the missile boat and the corvette.
To install the declared number of X-35s, which is 4 launchers with 4 launch cells, it will not be enough to remove the Bell. There is an opinion that in order to install "Uranus", they will also remove torpedo tubes, which, we admit, have long been archaic. And 8 pipes of 533 mm take up a lot of space on the ship.
About anti-submarine
Yes, once, 30 years ago, it was a BOD - a large anti-submarine ship. So it turns out that if all the ancient types of weapons are removed from the ship, which cause nothing but healthy laughter in modern submarines, then the newly-minted frigate will not be very good at anti-submarine warfare.
The way out is seen in the installation of the anti-torpedo complex "Package-NK". How the place will be divided after the removal of the 4-tube torpedo tubes is not yet clear, but the fact that 533-mm Paket launchers will fit in the place of the 324-mm torpedo tubes and there will still be room is understandable.
Anti-submarine torpedoes MTT and anti-torpedo AT are more compact, and therefore 2 x 4 launchers can be placed on the sides. Paket-NK intends to use its own Paket-AE target designation sonar, but the Polinom sonar has already been installed on Vinogradov, which, in principle, is capable of detecting submarines within a radius of 40-50 km. The station is Soviet, it cannot be called new. But given the range of MTT torpedoes of 20 km, it is quite enough to target these torpedoes.
Of course, if it is possible to dismantle the Polynom under-keel, then this must be done with a replacement in favor of a newer and more advanced Package-AE.
In addition, sooner or later, the Otvet rocket-torpedoes based on the same Caliber, which can be loaded in the same 3S14, will be brought to the standard. So yes, both torpedo tubes and RBU-6000 can be sent to the Navy Museum.
Artillery
Only the bow turret will remain, in which the AK-100 will be replaced by the AK-190. The caliber is the same, 100 mm, but the gun turret is uninhabited, with remote control. Instead of the second tower, as mentioned above, missile launch cells will be installed.
There is a question regarding the AK-630. There is no evidence that they will be changed to something or they will be given a newer fire control system. That is, 2-4 six-barreled 30-mm installations will remain as an auxiliary air defense caliber.
Control systems
New types of weapons will naturally require new control systems. This is a huge job, which consists not only in replacing blocks, but also in laying new cable channels. If Vinogradov is overhauled, then not only weapons control systems, but also navigation, communications, electronic intelligence and combat systems will have to be changed.
This is normal, the Shaposhnikov was almost completely dismantled, the dismantling took only six months. The ship changed about 800 kilometers of cable routes. And of course, all mechanisms were replaced and overhauled.
However, the fact that Shaposhnikov was left with his ancient air defense is a miscalculation. They didn't save where they needed to. Or rolled back too much, I don’t know. But the fact that in the 2020s an air defense ship is at the level of the 1990s is simply utter nonsense. This is not a warship, this is for parades or boats with pirates in the Gulf of Aden to drive, nothing more.
Let's hope that with Vinogradov it will turn out differently, more generously.
They say that after the modernization, the Shaposhnikov and Vinogradov will have to serve for 10 years, and there they seem to be replaced by new Admiral Gorshkov class frigates. Well, if so.
The point is still in certain concerns caused by the sad results of the repair of "Moscow". Yes, project 1155 is smaller than 1164, but nevertheless, there is room for “mistake” and screwing up. "Dalzavod", however, was not noticed in such "mistakes" of a fatal nature, but this does not give a 100% guarantee. Alas. But in this day and age, that's the way it is.
You can replace 800 km of cables out of 900, and end up with a fire on the ship due to problems with the 801st km.
In the USSR, ships were built to last for centuries, but again, as the practice of "Moscow" shows, you can stagger anything you want, there would be a desire. The fact that the ships are already more than 30 years old does not add confidence in tomorrow, but we seem to have no choice.
"Admirals" of project 22350, of course, will get into operation. It's a matter of time, and until that moment the old men from the Soviet Navy will have to "drag".
In principle, if the hulls of ships allow (and they apparently do), then modernization is a fairly correct move.
As such, the Project 1155 BOD was frankly a very weakly armed ship, aimed exclusively at fighting enemy submarines. Well, some other escort operations, nothing more. For the 90s of the last century, the armament was also insufficient, the emphasis on artillery and mine-torpedo weapons made the ships inapplicable for other tasks.
The development of modern Russian weapons has made it possible to turn narrowly specific anti-submarine ships into attack frigates, which definitely look preferable to BODs.
The scale of the work, however, is somewhat disproportionate to the declared service life of 10 years. Too much money and labor and too little life. But there, as they say, it will be seen.
Yes, the problem of middle-class ships cannot be solved by endless upgrades, but if you take my personal opinion, then Shaposhnikov was a kind of pancake that came out lumpy. Vinogradov has every chance of becoming quite a decent frigate, at the level of the German Saxony or Brandenburg. Plus or minus, ships of the same class and ours do not look weak or flawed.
In general, such modernization, if it is done clearly and not like with Moscow, looks like a pretty decent set of works that will really allow Admiral Vinogradov to serve for some more years. It's only for our benefit.
The main thing is that the new frigate uniform for the Admiral Vinogradov does not look like Trishkin's caftan for the Soviet BOD.
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