Project 1241 Molniya - Archived 12/1997

Outlook

Orientation

Sponsor

Rosvoorouzhenie

18/1 Ovchinnikovskaya Emb

113324 Moscow

Russia

Tel: +7 95 231 0049

Fax: +7 95 233 0272

Contractors

Almaz Central Naval Design Bureau

St Petersburg

Russia

Severnoe Design Bureau

St Petersburg

Russia

Volodarski Shipyard

Rybinsk

Russia

Petrovskiy Shipyard

St Petersburg

Russia

Licensee

Mazagon Dockyard

Bombay & Goa

India

Pennant List

Four additional ex-German vessels withdrawn from service and now scrapped

Technical Data

Extreme attention is paid to NBC defenses on these ships. The ship's hull and superstructure forms a pressurized citadel accessed via airlocks. The ship's showers are designed to act as emergency decontamination units. Overall construction is extremely solid.

Outfitting of these missile craft with a combination diesel-gas turbine powerplant was a difference, and a rather significant one, from the Osa class craft. With the development of full speed, the powerplant design gears both the diesel and the gas turbines to the propeller shaft. By using this CODAG configuration, the designers succeeded in reducing specific fuel consumption by more than a third at economical speed. This reduction has been translated into reduced fuel stowage and, thus, full displacement. Each gas turbine has full power of 12,000 shp and each diesel 4,000 shp, which gave the missile craft a full speed of 43 knots.

Based on requirements for providing the most favorable horizontal and vertical angles of fire, a single automatic AK-176 76.2 mm gun is mounted in the middle of the forecastle. This weapon is tasked with providing an extended range anti-air capability for self-defense, the destruction of fast airborne targets and unarmored surface targets within range. The AK-176 has a rate of fire of 120 rpm to a range of 14 km against surface targets and 7 km against air targets. The US Navy experience at Pax River suggests that this gun is virtually unjammable, and its great reliability resulted in it being awarded the nickname "Boopamatic."

Close in air defense is provided by two systems. A pair of AK-630 30 mm L65 gatling guns are installed at the rear end of the superstructure. These each have a rate of fire of 3,000 rpm to a maximum range of 2,500 m. They are normally controlled by the MR-123 radar but are provided with an optical back-up system designated Kolonka. This is a crude ring sight similar to that used on Second World War 20 mm Oerlikon guns. The AK-630 guns are supplemented by a SAN-8 launcher quadruple launcher for Igla-M infrared guided anti-aircraft missiles. This has a range of approximately 3.6 km. A total of 16 rounds are carried, four on the mount and 12 in a manually operated reload magazine.

The electronics suite is comprehensive and uses a Garpun-Bal-E (Band Stand) radar as the prime surface search/missile fire control radar. This radar operates in the E/F band and also acts as the datalink receiver for the P-270 missile. The Garpun-Bal-E is the primary sensor for the fire control complex 3Ts-80E and can track 15 targets while designating six for missile attack. As with SSN-22 Sunburn, Band Stand is a NATO generic name for a group of unrelated systems. These include a D-band radar on the Sovremenny class destroyers, the E/F-band system on the Type 1241.1MP and a new high F-band system on the new Type 1241RE. The radar suite also includes a Kivach 3 navigation radar, believed to be a clone of the Racal-Decca 1229.

The masthead position normally used by search radars is occupied by a Light Bulb datalink receiver system. This is a very high-speed, high-capacity datalink comparable to the NATO Link-16 system. It is used to transfer tactical information and data from a central command post (either a shore installation or a flagship) directly into the "Second Captain" command system.

Orders and tactical directives are transferred in a similar manner and the system is capable of firing the ship's offensive weapons without reference to the crew. This is intended to ensure that concentration of effect can be achieved with a coordinated attack from dispersed assets. Note that, in contrast to Western datalinks, the information traffic is one-way only. The Second Captain installation itself is very basic indeed and cannot be equated to a Western-style command system.

The electronic warfare fit reflects the assumption that the Tarantul class craft will be fighting inshore under friendly air power protection. The major system is Half Hat A which combines a directional radar warning system to set off the RK-16 chaff launchers with an integrated deception jammer. This is believed to provide some level of protection against Western anti-ship missiles. The EW suite also includes the Wine Glass high-precision ESM system which provides over-the-horizon targeting resources for the P-270 missiles.

Communications intelligence equipment is unusually extensive for a craft of this size. High-frequency direction finding (HF/DF or Huff-Duff) is provided by a mast head Cage Stalk installation. There is also a medium-frequency direction finding (MF/DF or Muff-Duff) system designated Muff Dive on the yardarms. One Russian perception explaining the unusually comprehensive provision of communications equipment is that the Tarantul class craft may be assigned to attack and disrupt hostile amphibious operations which include substantial numbers of civilian ships taken up from trade. These would have less secure communications facilities than warships and would thus be more easily targetable by such techniques.

A keel-mounted MG-519 (NATO codename Mouse Roar) high-frequency sonar is installed. This is purely a mine avoidance set and has no ASW function. The Type 1241.1 class (unlike its Type 1241P Pauk class half-brother) has no ASW capability or equipment.

Variants/Upgrades

The main armament of the Project 1241.1 has been the P-20M radar-guided and P-22 infrared-guided anti-ship missiles (both NATO codenamed SSN-2D Styx). Standard load-out is three P-20M and one P-22 missiles per ship. The ship has an all-gas turbine power plant with two 4,000 shp DMR-76 cruise turbines and two 12,000 shp PR-77 boost turbines. These give a maximum speed of 44 kts and an endurance of 2,400 nm at 14 kts (400 nm at 44 kts).

Secondly, Alenia has recently reported that it is drawing on its experience with the Minerva class corvettes to integrate INS-3 with Mini-SADOC and British-designed (almost certainly Super Barricade) decoy launchers for fast attack craft "of a Far Eastern Navy." The powerplant of Project 1241.1E includes two 12,100 NK-12MV gas turbines and two SEMT-Pielstick diesels. Later ships may have a three-shaft layout powered by a single LM-2500 gas turbine rated at 27,500 shp and two SEMT-Pielstick diesels.

The 9M-311 missile has command-to-line-of sight guidance and a maximum range of 8,000 m. Two radar antennas are provided, codenamed Hot Flash by NATO. One tracks the target, the other the stream of shells from the 30 mm guns to provide closed-loop tracking. The radar system also provides target tracking at 12,000 m for the 9M-311 missiles. The system operates in the L-band. There is no on-mount target acquisition radar; this function is provided by the Band Stand radar. The Band Stand radar on this variant operates in the high F-band rather than the E/F-band of Project 1241.1MP.

Export version of Type 1241RE with 16 US Harpoon or Russian AS-20 Kayak anti-ship missiles in place of the four P-270 missiles on the 1241RE.

Program Review

The experience of building and operating Project 183R missile craft permitted shifting to development of a new special-construction missile craft with heavier missile armament, increased seaworthiness and qualitatively improved specifications and performance characteristics. TsKB-5 specialists began work along this direction in 1955 before the lead Project 183R missile craft was commissioned in the Russian navy. Yukhnin continued to act as Chief Designer.

Targets for fulfilling the conceptual and detail designs were set for 1957 and 1958 respectively. Modification of the missile system, which subsequently permitted increasing the P-15 (NATO codename SSN-2A Styx) missile firing range from 40 to 80 km was done in parallel (much earlier than previously believed by Western sources), and creation of the new P-20 (NATO codename SSN-2B Styx) missile system also was under way. The Osa class missile craft's hull and powerplant were designed to allow for the possibility of their use for a new motor torpedo boat and other applications. The craft received a steel hull with special lines: round-bilge in the forebody and hard-chine in the afterbody. Experience showed that this helped increase their seaworthiness and also allowed them to use their missiles in a sea state up to and including four, without a speed restriction and up to Sea State five with a speed of 30 kts.

The Osa class (Type 205) missile craft were built in a large numbers from 1957 through 1970 by shipyards in Leningrad, Vladivostok and Rybinsk. Various design project modifications were undertaken, including Types 205A, 205K, 205E, 205ET, 205ch, 205U, 205M, 205MR and 205ER plus a number of other missile craft based ont the same Osa class design. Some of these were built only in small numbers or even simply as prototypes used for research or for working out new-design approaches in practice. The USSR built a total of over 400 missile craft under these design projects for the Russian navy as well as for transfer or sale abroad.

The Osa class design was considered a great success and, in 1960, a large group of shipbuilders, TsKB-5 specialists, and contracting parties were awarded the Lenin Prize for their involvement in its creation. In particular, Project Chief Designer Yukhnin, Project Deputy Chief Designer A. P. Gorodyanko, TsKB-5 Department Chief V. P. Gusev, Chief Designers A. Ya Bereznyak (for the missile system), V. A. Kucherov (for the radars), A.A. Mashkov and D. P. Pavlov (for fire control systems), were recognized with the prize. This list is provided in detail since it is virtually a directory of the cream of Russian naval design expertise.

The wide spread of Osa class in Russia and allied countries led the West to hastily begin work on creating similar combat assets. By the early 1970s the design of Western missile FAC-M had overtaken the Osa class – which was, after all the product of early 1950s technology – and Western anti-ship missile defenses had severely limited the efficiency of the P-15 and P-20 missiles. As a result the Russian coastal forces were facing obsolescence and export customers were switching to the new Western designs.

In order to recover design leadership in creating missile craft, a new generation of FAC-M was required. The latest design, the Nanutchka class (Russian codename Project 1234 Burya) had a different tactical rationale and did not fit the requirement. In accordance with a USSR Council of Ministers decree, the Almaz Central Naval Design Bureau began developing a new small craft design project, codenamed Tarantul class Corvettes, in 1973. This was originally conceived as a hydrofoil design but was rebuilt as a conventional displacement hull.

Missile craft of this design were supposed to replace their predecessors in the Russian navy in the 1980s. Development of a new, more advanced anti-ship missile system (the P-80, SSN-22 Sunburn) already had been completed and it was being deployed on the Sovremennyy class destroyers. This missile could not be accommodated on Osa missile craft because of its weight-size characteristics. The P-80 anti-ship missile was characterized by a long flight range and high cruising speed. This called for installing new, more advanced target designation equipment on the launch platform including the onboard processing equipment necessary to display the ISAR imagery sent back by the missile homing head. The increasing effectiveness of Western anti-ship systems required more effective means of collective protection and self-defense than on the Osas.

The Tarantul class was developed by the group of specialists headed by Project Chief Designer Yukhnin. Three versions of the design were developed in parallel. One of these, designated Type 1241.0, was intended for the Russian Navy and carried the highly sophisticated P-80 missile and its associated electronics. The second variant, Type 1241.1, was aimed at the export market and had simplified electronics and was armed with the P-20M (NATO codename SSN-2D Styx) anti-ship missile. The third version was an anti-submarine patrol craft designated Type 1241.2 and differed greatly from the first two designs. After modifications of the original design, the lead ship of "Molniya" Project, became operational with the Russian Navy during 1979-1980, with the prototype export analogue being completed somewhat later.

Trials with the prototype Type 1241.0 were conducted between 1979 and 1981 with mixed results. In terms of ship characteristics, the Tarantul class proved to be highly satisfactory, but problems were detected with the missile armament. Some of these related to the size and bulk of the P-80 missile which placed severe burdens on the hull but the most serious difficulties were electronic. The proximity of the fire control system to the other electronic systems on the ship and extreme difficulty in keeping the datalinks correctly aligned interfered with the sensitive ISAR image link. In spite of many efforts, it proved impossible to get the P-80 system onboard the Type 1241.0 to work consistently.

In contrast, the 1981 trials of the export Type 1241.1 design were wholly and unreservedly successful. As expected, the tried and tested P-20M and P-22 missiles deployed on these ships offered no problems. The complex electronics of the Type 1241.0 (Band Stand radar and Light Bulb high-capacity datalink) were deleted and replaced by a much simpler Garpun (NATO codename Plank Shave) radar which combined radar functions with ESM and a less sophisticated, lower capacity datalink within the same antenna. Deliveries of Type 1241.1 to export customers started in 1984 and continue.

The export version of the Tarantul class was therefore used as a basis for an interim design (Type 1241.1M) which would fill the gap until a new missile for the ships was available. The electronics of Type 1241.1 was upgraded with a number of the systems intended for Type 1241.0 including Band Stand, Light Bulb and a more comprehensive ESM suite. A new version of the P-20M missile was designed which incorporated an L-band seeker to provide enhanced target discrimination and a talk-back datalink to the launch platform (using Band Stand as the receiver). This missile was designated P-27 (NATO codename SSN-2E Styx). Three brigades (21 hulls) of this type were built between 1982 and 1986 with one ship being sold to Romania in 1991 — this being the first export of the P-27 missile.

The definitive Russian version of the Tarantul class took shape in 1986 when the first prototypes of a new hypersonic anti-ship missile were delivered. This combined the guidance system and datalink of the P-27 with a new airframe powered by an integral rocket/ramjet. The new missile was almost a metric tonne lighter than the P-80 and had less than half the range (90 km as opposed to 250 km). It was, however, substantially faster, making its attack run at mach 3.5. This missile was designated P-270 in Russian service but received the same NATO designation, SSN-22 Sunburn, as the older P-80 missile. The new missile/platform combination was designated Type 1241.1MP. Four brigades of this type were built with the last of the 28 scheduled for delivery in 1995.

India is the largest user outside Russia, with eight boats in service and 12 building. These fall into three groups. The first five are straightforward Type 1241.1 designs built in Russia. The second group of five (three complete, two building) are a modified version, fitted with the Italian Mini-SADOC command system and western EW equipment, and are designated Type 1241.1E. The remaining ten boats are a much more substantially modified design with three shafts in place of two and a radically different powerplant. The central shaft will be driven by an LM-2500 gas turbine while the outer two will be powered by SEMT-Pielstick diesels. Presumably the craft will trail its center screw in cruise configuration. Economic circumstances may force this program to be cut back.

During 1992, the US Navy purchased an ex-German Type 1241.1 boat, the BMS Hiddensee, for evaluation. This craft is now based at the Pax River experimental station. It is the only known Russian warship currently being operated by a NATO navy. All other ex-Russian warships in the German navy have been withdrawn from service for sale (mostly to Indonesia) or scrap. Early in 1994 two of the remaining German Tarantul class craft were offered to Poland. This was not accepted and the four ships were subsequently offered (in disarmed condition) to Lithuania. This offer was declined and the four ships are now reported to have been scrapped.

In April 1993, the Severnoe Design Bureau launched two new variants of the Type 1241.1 family at the Abu Dhabi Defense Exhibition. One of these was a simple modification of the Type 1241.1MP design, equipped with a single Kortika integrated gun/missile CIWS in place of the rear AK-630 guns and the SAN-8 missile launcher. This version was designated Type 1241RE. The second variant was a more substantial modification in which the four P-270 missiles were replaced by four quadruple banks of Kh-35 Harpoonski anti-ship missiles. Severnoe officials claimed that the Kh-35 could be replaced by US Harpoon missiles without any modification to ship or missile if the customer desired. This version was designated Type 1241.8 and is also armed with the Kortika CIWS.

Four Type 1241.1MP were delivered during 1994. A final Type 1241.1MP and the first of the Type 1241RE class craft for the Russian navy were reported as being due for completion in 1995. Presumably this is the flagship for the first brigade of Type 1241RE craft. There is no confirmation at time of writing that these deliveries have been made. The Vietnamese navy ordered two Type 1241RE corvettes, the agreement being announced in mid-1994 and the contract formally signed in early 1995. This remains the most recent publicized sale of the Tarantul class.

A further new variant of the basic design was revealed in early 1995. This has been designated Type 1242.1 and fits the electronics equipment of the Type 1241RE into the larger hull of the Type 1242 ASW corvette. The electronics have been upgraded with a 15- to 20-percent increase in radar data processing capability. The anti-air armament can consist of either two AK-630M mounts or a single Kashtan combined gun-missile system.

By mid-1996, most Russian publicity material was concentrating on the Type 1242.1 class with the implication that this was now entering Russian service to replace older Tarantul class boats. There is no supporting evidence for this presumption.

Funding

Original development of the Tarantul class designs was funded by the Soviet government for the Russian navy. Current developments and modifications for the export market are being funded privately by Rosvoorouzhenie.

Recent Contracts

Timetable

Worldwide Distribution

Forecast Rationale

At first sight, the Tarantul class appears to fall into much the same class as other enlarged fast attack craft designs, such as the French Combattante IVNG, the Swedish Goteborg or the British Vita class. However, being designed to operate in conformity with Russian tactical doctrines, a detailed examination of the design shows it to have quite different (though far from inferior) characteristics from those ships.

In common with the rest of Russian coastal forces, the Tarantul class FSG are designed to operate under tight central control from shore-based or floating command elements. Russian sources have described these ships and their Osa class predecessors as "mobile coast defenses." The targets are detected using an extensive shore-based surveillance network, one element of which is the Krug communications surveillance system, then the brigades of FSG are coached in to execute a coordinated attack from numerous points simultaneously. The Okean '70 exercise clearly showed that this technique was flawed and that an at-sea flagship was essential for the final control of the attack. This function is fulfilled by a custom-designed class, the Type 1239 Sivuch corvette, which controls a number (in theory three) of brigades. Only two Type 1239 corvettes have been built.

This doctrine of tight central control makes the Tarantul design unsuited to the requirements of most Western and other navies. These use their fast attack craft in a far more independent manner, still relying on shore-based functions for target acquisition, but conducting their attacks with a much higher level of individual initiative. The introduction of the Type 1242.1 with its increased hull volume may be aimed at providing for the installation of a Western-style command system. Indeed, if Type 1242 was to be made available with (for example) a SEWACO FD or a NAUTIS command system, it would be difficult to justify any other selection.

The Indian navy has shown the way to turning the Tarantul class design into a very attractive asset. By replacing the Russian command system with the proven Italian Mini-SADOC and installing new electronic warfare equipment, the capability of the design to perform Western-style mission profiles has been greatly enhanced. The Indian ships are limited in still carrying the old P-20M missile; the same conversion applied to the Type 1241.1MP or Type 1241.1RE designs would produce a very dangerous opponent.

In short, the Tarantul class is a very well designed, robust and powerful combatant. It shares with all other FSG a very serious vulnerability to helicopter-launched stand-off attacks — neither its AK-630 guns nor the 9M-313 missiles can reach out to the attack ranges preferred by, for example, Royal Navy Lynx/ Sea Skua helicopters. To some extent, this deficiency has been corrected by the modification of the design to carry Kashtan (the installation being a direct result of Russian evaluation of the Battle of the Bubiyan Channel), but vulnerability to air attack is still a serious problem.

On the other hand, the offensive capability of these craft provided by the quartet of P-270 missiles cannot be questioned. Trials have shown that CIWS guns such as Phalanx and Goalkeeper are quite incapable of countering these missiles and even the current generation of CIWS missiles are limited in their ability to cope with weapons of this type. When the new generation of laser-guided, hypersonic CIWS missiles, cued by optronic packages capable of detecting the heat plume of the P-270 over the horizon, enter service, a credible defense will be available. At the moment, even the most powerful and sophisticated warships are at risk. The only real defense is to kill the launch platform before the P-270s are airborne; this concept highlights the deficient air defenses of the design.

The comparative values of the hypersonic nonevasive anti-ship missile and its subsonic, low-observable and highly evasive equivalent are enthusiastically debated. Due to the large size of the former group, the choice has narrowed down to four of the hypersonic type or up to 16 of the evasive group. The jury is still out on the debate and the overall result is too close to call. The Severnoe Design Bureau hedged its bets by producing a variant of the Type 1241.1RE (Type 1241.8) armed with 16 of the Kh-35 Harpoonski missile. This is almost an identical twin of the US Harpoon missile and, in a superb example of truly capitalist commercial opportunism, both Severnoe and the Raduga Design Bureau, responsible for the Kh-35, claim that the Type 1241.8 can be fitted to carry the US weapon at no extra cost and with no structural or electronic modifications to either platform or missile.

In conclusion, the Type 1241.1 "Molniya" design appears to offer a very powerful offensive weapon with sufficient flexibility to enable its development into forms suitable for use by a wide variety of clients. In common with all other FSG designs, it is extremely vulnerable to counterattack and its chances of surviving an engagement with, for example, the Royal Navy or US Navy are slight. In a more limited environment, the design comes into its own, and for such circumstances, it is undoubtedly the best design in its class currently available.

Production of the Type 1241.1 family has historically been held at a level of four hulls per year for the Russian navy and an average of two per year for export customers. Type 1241RE is one of the designs forming an essential part of the Russian naval reconstruction plans for the next decade (the others being the Project 956 destroyer, the Project 1154 SKR, the Project 971 SSN and the Project 636 SSK). All other warship design projects have been halted. As the Russian navy reorients toward its traditional role of territorial defense, the Tarantul class will be an essential part of the fleet. We therefore believe that this construction rate will be maintained, although existing versions will be replaced by more advanced developments.

Indian construction is likely to be much slower than planned and is unlikely to exceed one hull per yard per year. We also believe that the more extensive modifications planned will be dropped and construction concentrated on the existing variant (Type 1241.1E). Depending on the terms of their production license, these may form the first significant warship exports by India.

Other export customers may well emerge as existing users of the Osa class, now reaching the end of its viable hull life, look for successors. The Tarantul class, available at low cost and using many of the support facilities set up for the Osa class will probably do well here. However, most of these sales will be of in-service Russian Type 1241.1M variants with the funds so obtained being used to acquire the projected Type 1241RE fleet. Bulgaria has already started to follow this pattern. Our unspecified exports production line is therefore severely restricted. However, refitting these craft along the lines of the Indian variants and providing systems for new-build hulls may well provide a substantial volume of work for command system and electronic warfare companies.

Ten-Year Outlook

None.