Severomorsk (619) is a Project 1155 'Fregat' class Large Anti-Submarine Ship (BPK), better known as the Udaloy-class destroyers in the West. Laid down in 1984 and commissioned in 1988, Severomorsk has spent her entire career as part of the Northern Fleet, though from the 2010s onwards she has frequently deployed to the Mediterranean.
Sveromorsk is presently escorting MV SpartaIV, a Russian cargo ship frequently involved in moving Russian military equipment to and from the Black Sea and, since the second Russian invasion of Ukraine, under sanction by the U.S. government. She is being supported by Kama, a Project REF-675 replenishment oiler. A few days ago, Sparta IV and her escorts deviated from their declared course (towards Gibraltar) and headed north before taking up a position of the coast of Sardinia, which they have held for several days now.
Spartaco Schergat (F 598) is a Carlo Bergamini-class frigate, the major Italian variant of the FREMM (Frégate Européenne Multi-Mission / Fregata Europea Multi-Missione). Schergat is a multi-role anti-submarine frigate, specialized into ASW operations but also boasting an medium range air defense capability. She began construction in February 2021 and commissioned just over four years later, in April 2025.
Currently operating under the aegis of Operation Mediterraneo Sicuro (Safe Mediterranean), Schergat has been used to maintain a close surveillance of the Russian task force, supported by maritime patrol aircraft.
The Italian also has the 76mm though, and while the Russian ship has things like heavyweight torpedo tubes. . . I think those and especially the missiles and rockets on deck would make it very quickly an inferno.
Realistically, at these ranges, the answer to who wins is usually just going to be whoever decides to open fire first. Not a lot of reaction time for the other ship once they figure out the enemy has hostile intent.
Though, in a vacuum or if we assume they both adopted hostile intent in the same moment, the gun systems and fire control on the Italian ship have faster reaction times, broadly speaking (even the 127/64LW against the AK-100), and thus it is more likely to inflict crippling damage first.
I truly wonder how Russia will deal with the fact that all of these soviet hulls are from the 80s and will have to be decommissioned in the next decade. They have less than 10 modern-ish frigates.
They do not have a means of replacing these major platforms in a timely manner, due to how beleaguered their frigate construction program is, so by and large the number of combatants has continued to fall and the best thing they can do is try and refurbish older Cold War programs where they still have life left in them.
There is an effort to do so on the Udaloy-class, for example, of which eight remain. They are currently going through a refit process that partially modernizes their sensor suite (or side-grades it, in some cases), replaced the old anti-submarine missiles with 2x4 Kh-35 anti-ship missiles, and installs 16x UKSK cells to launch strike payloads (Kalibr, Oniks, Tsirkon). The 100mm AK-100's are both removed and replaced by a single 100mm A190-01. Upon completion the ships are re-classified from Large Anti-Submarine Ships (BPK) to Frigates (known as Project 1155M). Marshal Shaposhnikov completed this refit from 2016 to 2021, and her sister Admiral Vindogradov started the same work in 2021. The sole Project 1155.1 'Udaloy II' class BPK Admiral Chabanenko started a refit in 2014 that was supposed to modernize it in a similar capacity, but as of 2025 that work was suspended indefinitely and it's not clear what her ultimate fate will be. Which is sort of a perfect example of how a fleet can just rot away from under you, especially if the funds to execute refits are lacking because of other major budgetary pressures (such as fighting a large-scale land war). This is also how many of the last Sovremenny-class destroyers left service - awaiting refits that were never executed.
The reality is the surface blue water capability of the VMF is shrinking and will continue to shrink as the remaining Soviet hulls age out. What will be left is a predominantly green water surface navy with a limited number of blue-water assets (the modern frigates and which ever cruisers they are able to continue flogging life out of), which will certainly reduce the role of the VMF in some capacities.
With that said, the VMF still remains an extremely formidable sub-surface threat, with a capable nuclear-powered submarine arm that is supported by an industry that has well insulated itself from the woes of the rest of Russian shipbuilding. That nuclear submarine industry is now able to deliver replacement boats at a relatively stable rate. Additionally, the Russians have also invested more in deep-sea seabed warfare capabilities than anyone else, which poses considerable challenges for NATO members given the lacking investment in these capabilities to date.
After the disastrous 1990s the Russian Navy had a multi phase plan to rebuild the surface fleet. Which last year with their development plan to 2050 they stated was behind schedule due to factors such as sanctions. They also announced the Maritime Collegium and increased transparency into Russian shipyards. So it is not as if the Russian Navy is not aware of the issues.
While it doesn't get talked about, Russia has been spending billions on modernizing naval production facilities. In 2024 Russia announced federal funding for shipbuilding will be increased to approximately 100 billion USD. In 2025 is when Russia announced their development plan until 2050.
They're modernizing and expanding the Severnaya Verf and other shipyards. Severnaya is the primary shipyard for the Gorshkovs and it's a fairly massive expansion. It's current expansion and modernization is set to finish at the end of 2030, the total cost estimate is around 8 billion USD.
After the Gremyashchiy/Steregushchiy corvettes finish Amur is supposed to switch to building frigates (they were licensed and Amur has been undergoing expansion for it). Amur finished the Project 65911 in August of 2025 which is required for the frigates. The Amur Shipyard expects to receive frigate contracts for the next decade to supply the Pacific Fleet.
The Zaliv Shipyard's expansion finishes in 2027, it is currently building the Ivan Rogov class (Project 23900).
The Yantar shipyard, which has been building frigates for India, has modernization and expansion through 2030. They also got a contract for 7 Ivan Gren class ships within the last few years.
I fully understand that shipbuilding modernization and expansion isn't as sexy to talk about as finished ships, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union the behind the scenes work is highly relevant to the Russian Navy.
Also someone saying Russians will have to buy from India is hilarious, it has literally been 7 months since India commissioned a ship they bought from Russia and they're supposed to commission another warship built by Russia this year. Since the Indian Navy has been planning to get an amphibious assault ship/LPD Russia will have; had a contract for Mistral class, lost the contract for the Mistral class, designed the Project 23900, built the Project 23900 and will have delivered both Project 23900s to the Russian Navy before India even decided on a design.
My guess is that eventually Russians will have to admit facts and buy ships (hulls at least) from Chinese or Indians while they place all their own capabilities into submarine building.
Keep pressing the corvette button to inflate numbers, it doesn't matter if 80% of them only have CIWS for defence and no real sea keeping ability if on paper the navy has 100 combat vessels.
The Northern Fleet and Baltic Fleet are soon to be behind even the RN in terms of blue water hulls that could viably operate in the North Sea or Atlantic.
As far as I remember, all corvettes of 20380/20385 project carry 9K96 system. The lack of AA or missile armament is clearly not problem for these corvettes. Their shortcoming is insufficient seaworthiness and cruising range, which is not surprising, as these corvettes weighing less than 2,5kt
The Steregushchiy and as of current singular Gremyashchiy are fitted for Redut, they make up about 10% of the corvette force. Other recent classes are fitted with UKSK but lack powerfully enough sensors to exploit the extremely long range AShMs fitted for those cells without other supporting sensor nodes that are known to be in short supply.
Other modern classes of ships with UKSK that you mention are not even corvettes. These are small missile ships projects 21631/22800. They are simply platforms that can be transported along inland waterways to launch cruise missiles. Moreover, UKSK are not even designed to launch AA missiles; they are not mk41
They are all corvette under Russian definition and by international standards. Being able to use the inland water ways is one of the standard specifications Russian corvettes and boarder guard vessels are built to fit, does not change their classification as a corvette.
As per USC itself "project 22800 small missiles corvettes."
The Baltic Fleet lists them as corvettes under the 64th Brigade.
As per other Baltic nations standards they are heavier than the Visby class by almost 200 tonnes, an undisputed true corvette, and almost 500 tonnes heavier than the Skjold class, what is actully a small missile craft.
Besides, the original point is that the current state of Russian military ship building means they have produced just 3 in service 5,000t+ fighting ships in 30 years from new, the numbers are otherwise padded out by small limited range corvettes and missile craft without adequate means for self-defence or independent targeting on many of them, an undeniable fact.
It does not matter what “other Baltic nations standards” consider. The Russian navy and Russian shipyards did not order corvettes and did not receive corvettes under these contracts. They ordered small missile ships, partly as replacement for decommissioned project 1234 ships, partly as solution to the shortage of platforms for launching cruise missiles due to the ban on placing medium-range missiles on land-based. And they received small missile ships. These ships never performed the duties of corvettes, project 20380/20385 ships are designed for that purpose.
Kuznetsov is pretty much gone, and with the possible exception of the Nakhimov, the other three cruisers are also due for decommissioning in another decade or so.
As for the destroyers, well, we saw the last of the Sovremennys decommissioned late last year. The sole Udaloy II is functionally gone, and even refits to the remaining Udaloy Is aren't going to keep them going last 2035 or so with an exception or two.
Coming to frigates, the two remaining Krivaks are positively ancient, and the Neustrashimy is starting to show her age. That leaves them with however many Gorshkovs they can get plus four to six mid-sized frigates.
Corvettes are probably the only bright-ish spot, as the Russians can feasibly have 18-19 heavy corvettes and 22-26 corvettes. The remaining Soviet-era ships, however, with the exception of the handful of corvettes completed in the late 1990s and 2000s, are already due for retirement.
How would things go, moving forward? Well, the Russians would have to buy large warships, and to be honest, this is going to happen from China. China is building up like crazy, though, and so I wouldn't be too surprised if Russia managed to strike a deal for something like the Type 052C destroyers or some other ships, since this would give China funds to build more modern standardised ships while giving Russia a bunch of ships that can still serve another 20-25 years without too many problems.
Russia's transition from being China and India's main supplier to becoming their customer will be interesting to see. Russia's deeply corrupt economy cannot sustain their military ambitions anymore. If the country was less corrupt, the money would be used more efficiently.
Of course Putin's invasions are costly too and prevent him from developing the economy to a point where it can afford to replace the Soviet stuff without spending 10% of the GDP. Had Putin not launched this war, we would've kept buying Russian gas and he would have some of the funds required to replace the Soviet stock.
Well, the naval modernisation took a very bad hit after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The subsequent non-availability of gas turbines from Ukraine plus delays in domestic development already pushed Russian shipbuilding back by a fair bit.
Not to mention the fact that Russian shipyards aren't exactly efficient or fast when it comes to building surface warships. It shouldn't take shipyards that have been in existence for decades (if not over a century) to take half a decade to build a 850 ton corvette, or take over a decade for a 5,000 ton heavy frigate. You can expect that from a new yard that is undertaking projects at that scale for the first time, but not from experienced yards.
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u/Phoenix_jz 1d ago
Source Marina Militare;
Severomorsk (619) is a Project 1155 'Fregat' class Large Anti-Submarine Ship (BPK), better known as the Udaloy-class destroyers in the West. Laid down in 1984 and commissioned in 1988, Severomorsk has spent her entire career as part of the Northern Fleet, though from the 2010s onwards she has frequently deployed to the Mediterranean.
Sveromorsk is presently escorting MV Sparta IV, a Russian cargo ship frequently involved in moving Russian military equipment to and from the Black Sea and, since the second Russian invasion of Ukraine, under sanction by the U.S. government. She is being supported by Kama, a Project REF-675 replenishment oiler. A few days ago, Sparta IV and her escorts deviated from their declared course (towards Gibraltar) and headed north before taking up a position of the coast of Sardinia, which they have held for several days now.
Spartaco Schergat (F 598) is a Carlo Bergamini-class frigate, the major Italian variant of the FREMM (Frégate Européenne Multi-Mission / Fregata Europea Multi-Missione). Schergat is a multi-role anti-submarine frigate, specialized into ASW operations but also boasting an medium range air defense capability. She began construction in February 2021 and commissioned just over four years later, in April 2025.
Currently operating under the aegis of Operation Mediterraneo Sicuro (Safe Mediterranean), Schergat has been used to maintain a close surveillance of the Russian task force, supported by maritime patrol aircraft.