A Nearly Finished Corvette Burned in Russia. It Was Due to Be Armed With the Newest "Putin's Missile"

The cause of the fire has not been officially disclosed, and the scale of the damage described may be understated.

In St Petersburg, a Project 20385 corvette caught fire at the Severnaya Verf shipyard. The corvette Provorny is the second ship of the project. There were also reports of plans to arm Project 20385 ships with Tsirkon hypersonic missiles. This is reported by BBC.

Flames engulfed nearly the entire warship. The fire spread over 800 square meters.

On December 17 at 23:00, the press service of the Emergencies Ministry directorate in St Petersburg reported that the fire on the ship had been localized.

The ambulance service reported three injured — one person in moderate condition and two in satisfactory condition.

The ship is to be restored

The corvette was planned to be handed over to the Russian Navy at the end of next year, but the timeline may now be pushed back depending on the damage, Interfax reports, citing its source. There was no active work on the corvette on Friday, and the cause of the fire remains unclear.

Russian media also claim the corvette's hull was not damaged in the fire; the superstructure and the main antenna-mast unit were seriously damaged. According to another version, the fire damaged the wheelhouse and the tower-mast structure.

"Provorny"

Construction of the Provorny began in July 2013. The corvette was reportedly being built for the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy, based in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The Provorny is the second ship of Project 20385. Severnaya Verf also built the project's lead corvette, the Gremyashchy, which was delivered to the Pacific Fleet. The Gremyashchy is armed with Kalibr cruise missiles.

There were also reports of plans to arm Project 20385 ships with Tsirkon hypersonic missiles, previously promoted in a pompous manner by Russian propaganda and President Vladimir Putin.

According to them, this weapon is supposedly "unique and has no analogues in the world." The Tsirkon missile, judging by its declared specifications, will be capable of striking land and surface targets at ranges of over a thousand kilometers at a speed of about 9 Mach, and will enter service in 2022.

The main task of Project 20385 ships is "detecting and destroying surface targets and submarines, organizing amphibious landings, guarding the coastal zone and escorting other ships."