Russia Won’t Sell Unfinished Project 11356 Frigates to India

According to him, the Russian Navy does not consider any form of sale of the unfinished frigates to India. Earlier on, Alexey Rakhmanov, president of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) told Mil.Today that construction of Project 11356 ships would continue. However, he did not specify whether it would be a new series or USC would complete frigates Admiral Istomin, Admiral Butakov and Admiral Kornilov.


The Russian Defense Ministry ordered six Project 11356 frigates under two contracts concluded in 2010-2011 to the total amount of 80 bln rubles. The project implied the use of gas turbine powerplants made by Ukrainian company Zorya-Mashproekt.

First three ships obtained engines in due time. Zorya-Mashproekt produced engines for the second trio as well, but due to the Donbass conflict blazed up in 2014 Ukraine refused to hand them over to Russia. After that, the future of the two hulls (Admiral Istomin and Admiral Butakov; Admiral Kornilov was not officially laid down) has been discussed for several years. The option of selling the fourth and the fifth frigates to the Indian Navy was recently under consideration.

Interestingly enough, the decision to complete the second series of Project 11356 frigates for the Russian Navy was made after NPO Saturn declared a noticeable progress in designing of domestic gas turbine powerplants for those ships.