Project 22350: Admiral Sergei Gorshkov

even the 4 mistrals will be delivered sooner than the 4 first stereguschy corvettes

Interesting that it seems to have a large rectangular position on the side of the mast for an AESA array... presumably Poliment, but there is no space for a forward facing system. Assuming another array on the opposite side and one facing rear suggests to me that the new radar has a FOV of at least 120 degrees and that they are going to save some money and space and power by having three arrays instead of 4.

Should be interesting... and I agree she has very nice lines at the moment.

Edit: except now that I take a closer look I can see the other antenna array above the fire control radar for the front mounted gun systems (which is clearly related to the 5P10) and looking at the rear shot of its sister ship the mast is clearly not triangular and has four sides.

That is OK too.

Because the square shape is flattened there should be more overlap at the front and rear, which should be good as a threat should result in the vessel being turned front or rear on to present the smallest target while bringing the threat into view of two main radar arrays plus the top radar rather than just one.

Source: Russia to Lay Down Next Project 22350 Frigate

New Project 22350 frigate will be laid down in the nearest time at JSC Severnaya Verf shipyard, a source in Russian defense ministry told Central Navy Portal.

According to the source, Russian Navy Main HQ submitted a request to defense ministry asking to name the new frigate in honor of Hero of the Soviet Union Admiral Ivan S. Isakov.

Project 22350 frigate is designed for naval warfare in littoral and ocean zones. Displacement is about 4,500 tons; length overall is over 130 meters; beam overall is over 16 meters; operating range is about 4,000 nautical miles; navigability is unlimited. Each frigate accommodates a deck-based helicopter.

Keel-laying of the third Project 22350 frigate named Admiral Golovko took place at Severnaya Verf on Feb 1, 2012. Lead ship of the project, Admiral Gorshkov was launched in 2010 and is currently at the final stage of outfitting. The first batch-produced frigate Admiral Kasatonov was laid down at Severnaya Verf in 2009.

As was earlier said by sources in shipbuilding industry, Russian Navy's demand for frigates in the next 15-20 years is up to 20 ships. New frigates will be based on Project 22350 ships capable to operate both independently and within task groups

http://rusnavy.com/news/navy/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=16441

It is very likely that the very long range S-400 missiles will use onboard radar seekers either in SARH or more likely ARH and possibly with an IIR backup seeker fitted so much like a long range shot with an R-77 precise continuous tracking of the target is not strictly essential and mid course updates would be sufficient to ensure the target does not move outside the missiles own detection area by the time the missile gets there.

Just like the R-37 missile fired at a target 300km away that was beyond the detection or tracking range of the Mig-31M that had not been fitted with an upgraded radar yet and was using a standard ZASLON radar, yet through the use of a Su-30 closer to the target providing target data the target was engaged and hit.

A corvette operating near a home coastline could use data from the aerospace defence network as well as the navy network to find targets to engage at distances well beyond those its own sensors could detect targets at.

The Russian plan for Su-30M miniAWACS fighter management aircraft with smaller lighter aircraft like Mig-29s operating closer to the enemy with their radars off operating silently is an example of using smaller lighter platforms to operate closer to an enemy using the more powerful long range sensors of other platforms to delivery weapons without giving away their positions, yet being able to detect the enemy well before the enemy detects them and deliver weapons silently and leave to rearm leaving their return to base to rearm and refuel covered by the heavy platforms that gave them the tactical advantage in the first place.

Maximise the performance of the systems by using big long range radar and big long range missiles on multiple small cheap platforms that can operate closer to the enemy without being noticed/detected yet able to defend themselves and deliver medium and long range missiles every bit as potent as the weapons of the larger more expensive systems which by definition you can't afford to have many of in terms of cost and manning limitations.