The 9-th International Maritime Defense Show (IMDS-2019) took place from 10 to 14 July of 2019 in St.-Petersburg under the Russian Government decree. The IMDS-2019 Organizing Committee was headed by Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov. Event got full support of Russia’s State structures, Rosoboronexport and Saint Petersburg. The Exhibition Operator was Morskoy Salon.

Admiral Kasatonov frigate project 22350 Kerala

Admiral Kasatonov frigate project 22350

Serpukhov small missile ship project 21631

Training system mock-up for submarine crews for emergency situation by Rubin MDB

Pantsir-M – navalised version of the world known SHORADs from KBP/ HPW

Praveen Pathak, Chief General Manager (Mkt. Promotion & Export) BrahMos Aerospace with Russia’s Vice Prime-minister Yury Borisov and Chief of Navy Nikolay Evmenov at the company booth

353 exhibitors, including 28 foreign from 19 countries occupied Lenexpo Complex with a total area indoors over 15,000 sq.m, outdoor space and water area at the Sea Terminal.

Fifty delegations from 36 countries visited the Show. Among them twenty three were invited by Rosoboronexport which portfolio for naval hardware as claimed by Company’s CEO Alexander Mikheev exceeds $ 5 billion. 16 ships, boats and craft of the Russian Navy and the Border Guard participated at the event.

Project 22350 Frigate

IMDS 2019 showed debut of Admiral Kasatonov frigate - the second in the row and the first serial ship of the Project 22350. The Severnoye Design Bureau ship will be adopted by the Navy till the end of 2019. Initial ship of the Project, Admiral Gorshkov, has been in service with the Russian Navy since last summer. Two more frigates – Admiral Golovko and Admiral Isakov – are under construction at the Severnaya shipyard in St.Petersburg.

Project 22350 multifunctional frigates displace 5000 tons with speed up to 29 knots. The weapon systems and equipment include Kalibr missiles and Poliment-Redut ship-bourne AD system to be used in any part of the World Ocean.

Project 22800 Corvette

Much attention of experts and official delegations was also focused on a lead ship of the Project 22800 Karakurt-class corvette Mytischi. The corvette is designed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau and was manufactured by the Pella shipyard. Project 22800 is the most massive series of ships being simultaneously built at Russian shipyards. Lead ship Mytischi is in service with the Russian Navy since late 2018. Another 10 corvettes are being tested or constructed at the moment. In total Russian Navy signed orders for 18 ships of the Karakurt-class.

The Karakurt ships are equipped with versatile launchers of UKSK 3C14 type. These launchers can be used to launch Kalibr and Onix family of cruise missiles and their equivalents (Yakhont, Brahmos), as well as Zircon hypersonic missiles, as soon as they will be passed into service. In addition, the ship is equipped with improved gun mount (GM) of AK-176MA type. The first pair of the Karakurt-class corvettes is armed with AK-630M rapid firing GM. Starting from the second serial-produced corvette Shkval, the ships will be equipped with the Pantsir-M air defense missile systems— a seaborne version of the land-based Pantsir-S1 air defense system proven effective through the course of the Syria Campaign.

Serpukhov Small Missile Ship

One of the Naval show highlights was the latest Serpukhov small missile ship of the project 21631. The vessel has been designed by the Zelenodolsk Bureau and built at the neighboring Gorky Shipyard.

The ship has 949 t displacement, 25 knots speed and operational range up to 1500 nautic miles. The ship’s main weaponry is 8 missiles of the Kalibr-class, as well as A-190 100-mm artillery unit. Air defense protection is managed by 2x4 Gibka launchers with Igla-type missiles and Duet artillery turret with 2 AK-630 six-barrel 30-mm guns. Close defence employs 2 x14,5-mm and 3 x 7,62-mm machine guns.

Lamantin

Nevskoe Design Bureau distributed information on the perspective aircraft carrier of project 11430E codenamed Lamantin. The ship’s model was displayed at the bureau’s booth within the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC) pavilion. According to the available data, the Lamantin is designed for various aircraft capable of fighting air, sea and ground targets in oceans, seas and coastal waters and to ensure combat sustainability of warship groupings and defend amphibious assault from an air attack. The Lamantin can be equipped with several types of accelerators for ship-borne aircraft, including one sky jump, two electromagnetic catapults, and four arresters.

The Lamantin-class carrier displaces 80-90 thousand tons. It is 350-meter long and 41-meter wide. The draft is about 12 meters. Full speed is close to 30 knots and the cruising capacity is 120 days. The crew comprises 2800 men and the airpower - 800 men. The aircraft carrier will accommodate up to 60 aircraft (planes and helicopters) and 6-10 unmanned aerial vehicles.

Rubin Design Bureau

Rubin Design Bureau demonstrated mockup of training system designed to provide full scope of training and drilling for submarine crews on rescue, damage control and diving activities.

In cooperation with the leading companies of Russian shipbuilding industry Rubin has designed the first Russian operational system for submarine personnel training and drilling of rescue and damage control activities including training stands for fire-fighting, stands for training escape from a sunken submarine, stand for training emergency parties intended for advanced investigation and conduct of emergency works.

Rubin has already developed and tested simulating module of fire-fighting compartment of submarine. Simulator provides damage control training in emergency situation such as fire or dangerous concentrations of harmful substances.

Pantsir

The High Precision Weapons Holding Company arranged demonstration of the Pantsir-ME shipborne air-defense missile and artillery system developed and produced by the Instrument Design Bureau JSC KBP named after Academician A.Shipunov.

The Pantsir-ME air-defence missile and artillery system can be set up on ships with water displacement of over 300 tons. The system provides a reliable protection of vessels from all the existing and prospective air assault weapons in the whole spectrum of their combat capabilities with an unconditional probability of kill, which is practically equivalent to one, including low-flying anti-ship missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The high effectiveness in intercepting of anti-ship missiles is explained by high performance tactical and technical characteristics of the Pantsir-ME air-defence missile and artillery system. The system is capable of simultaneous firing at four targets attacking the ship while the kill zone for guided anti-aircraft missiles reaches 20 kilometers in distance and up to 15 kilometers in height. Besides, Pantsir-ME can first utilize its missile weapons, and then, in case of a miss, the target will be hit by the artillery fire with a 100 percent guarantee.

According to Rosoboronexport’s Director General Alexander Mikheev, Pantsir has very good export prospects in the Arab countries, South-East Asia and Latin America.

BraMos Aerospace

The Russian-Indian joint venture has displayed a variety of its supersonic cruise missiles for the Army, Navy and Air Force application. The latest version of the BRAHMOS-A missile has been successfully tested with the IAF Su-30MKI multipurpose aircraft. The Russian Vice Prime minister Yury Borisov paid a visit to BrahMos to confirm a full support for the enterprise.

One can note that the 10th IMDS dates and exact location haven’t been determined yet. There are rumors about LenExpo grounds sale for commercial development to shift the well-established show in Kronshtadt – the Baltic Fleet naval base in the island of Kotlin which has been connected to St.-Petersburg main land with a recently built highway. At the moment there are no facilities to accommodate a huge show and a large number of visitors in Kronshtadt. So, the nearest future will determine one of the best world naval show’s destiny.