The Project 22350 first serial-produced frigate Admiral Kasatonov will enter service with the Russian Navy in July, Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov said in an interview with the Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on Monday, EDNews.net reports citing TASS.

"Currently, the second frigate of this Project, the Admiral Kasatonov, is completing trials and will enter service with the Navy in July," the admiral said.

The Russian Navy is making an emphasis on frigates of this Project as basic oceanic-going surface ships. They will also be improved in the future, the Navy chief said.

"The ships of this Project confirm the inherent operational characteristics laid out by the designer and the manufacturer. The Project 22350 has large modernization potential and will be further developed relative to some shipborne systems and armament," he explained.

On June 6, the frigate Admiral Kasatonov wrapped up its state trials and returned to the Severnaya Shipyard in St. Petersburg for its inspection. During the final trials in the Baltic Sea, the shipbuilders and the frigate’s crew checked all the frigate’s design characteristics, the operation of its systems and armament and practiced inter-operability with submarines and aircraft and carried out rescue and evacuation drills.

The frigate Admiral Kasatonov will enter service with Russia’s Northern Fleet where the lead ship of this Project, the Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov is already operational.

The frigate Fleet Admiral Kasatonov is the second (the first serial-produced) Project 22350 warship built at the Severnaya Shipyard (part of Russia’s United Shipbuilding Corporation). The cutting-edge frigate was laid down on November 26, 2009 and floated out on December 12, 2014.

Project 22350 frigates are expected to become the Russian Navy’s most advanced warships in their class. These frigates displace 4,500 tonnes and can develop a speed of 29 knots. They are armed with Oniks and Kalibr missiles and Poliment-Redut air defense missile systems.

The Project 22350 lead frigate Admiral Gorshkov entered service with the Russian Navy in July 2018. The Project’s first serial-produced frigate Admiral Kasatonov was put afloat in 2014.

The Project 22350 frigate Admiral Golovko was laid down on February 1, 2012 and floated out in May 2020. Three more frigates of this Project are at various stages of their construction at the Severnaya Shipyard.