Russia laid the keel for the ninth ship in its Project 22350 frigate class at the Severnaya Verf shipyard in St. Petersburg on 14 May. The new frigate will be built to carry Zircon hypersonic missiles, according to the Russian producer plant United Shipbuilding Corporation.
The keel-laying ceremony was led by current Russian Navy commander Admiral Alexander Moiseyev.
Russia has launched Zircons against Ukrainian cities multiple times during the war, sometimes from ships, more often from Bastion-P ground launchers in occupied Crimea.
Russia's ability to continue building ships demonstrates that Western sanctions have not been enforced enough.
What was laid down
Project 22350 frigates are 135 meters long with a crew of 186 to 210. They are designed for open-ocean operations, including anti-ship, anti-submarine, escort, and patrol work.
The class carries the Poliment-Redut air-defense system, the Paket-NK anti-submarine torpedo system, Kalibr-NK and Onyx cruise missiles, and the Ka-27 helicopter. The most distinctive payload is the Zircon: a Mach-8 hypersonic anti-ship missile originally designed to penetrate US Navy carrier strike group defenses.
Three Project 22350 frigates currently serve with Russia's Northern Fleet: the lead ship Admiral Gorshkov, Admiral Kasatonov, and Admiral Golovko. Six more, including Gromov, are at various stages of construction. The total planned class is ten.
Russia's Black Sea Fleet, by comparison
Project 22350 frigates serve the Northern Fleet — not the Black Sea Fleet, which has borne the brunt of the actual naval war. Ukrainian Magura and Sea Baby unmanned surface vessels have driven the Black Sea Fleet from its main base at Sevastopol, sunk or damaged at least a third of its surface combatants, and reduced Russia's at-sea posture in the Black Sea to occasional missile launches.
Russia is now trying to copy Ukrainian sea-drone tactics by building unmanned surface vessels based on the systems that beat the fleet it deployed in 2022.
Earlier, Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces carried out strikes against the frigate Admiral Grigorovich in the port of Novorossiysk and the offshore drilling platform Sivash.
