The Defense Attaché of the British Embassy in Ukraine, Commodore of the Royal Navy Tim Woods, said that missile boats for the Ukrainian Navy will be laid in early 2022; four of them will be built in the United Kingdom.
According to the British diplomat, these missile boats will be specially designed for Ukraine.
These missile boats are designed specifically for Ukraine, so they will be original and have a length of approximately 50 to 65 meters, which will provide a speed of 40 knots. It is planned to install artillery systems and missiles on them … These can be short- or long-range missiles. This is the issue that British companies are currently considering. But these will be missiles of a new class, specially designed for Ukraine by the British industry.
Tim Woods, Defense Attaché of the British Embassy in Ukraine
The navy officer added that four boats will be built in Britain. At the same time, Ukrainian shipbuilders will be able to observe construction, learn and train. The second part, namely, four missile boats, will be constructed in Ukraine (probably the shipyard of Nibulon company in Nikolaev). It will be great for Ukrainian shipbuilding and also for the Navy, so these capabilities will be available in Ukraine.
The British attaché said that the construction of the first ship will start early 2022.
Construction of the first missile boat will begin early next year. And it will happen quickly enough. Our initial vision is that all eight missile boats will be built or under construction until 2024. It's fast enough. I think, despite the delays in the start of construction, we will see these ships in the Black Sea already in 2025 with Ukrainian sailors on board.
Tim Woods, Defense Attaché of the British Embassy in Ukraine
He also said another option that they were studying, not yet been formalized, it is the joint design of warships of the British industry with the Ukrainian design bureau in Nikolaev (Mykolaiv).
A British trade mission will arrive in Odessa at the end of this year aboard a Project 45 destroyer.
We had hoped to bring a trade mission here last year, but this was prevented by the coronavirus epidemic. Perhaps later this year we will invite another trade mission. We want our Type 45 destroyer to arrive in Odessa at the end of the year. And if the vaccination situation develops well, we are convinced that the next trade mission will arrive with the T45 destroyer, or we can take it here in Kyiv.
Tim Woods, Defense Attaché of the British Embassy in Ukraine
It is worth reminding that the boats are planned to be built at the expense of a loan in the amount of 1.25 billion pounds, allocated by the UK to Ukraine.
Earlier it was reported that only two of the eight boats will be built in the United Kingdom, and the rest in Ukraine. In December, it was announced that the Ukrainian Navy had given preliminary consent to equip strike units with the Norwegian Naval Strike Missile (NSM) anti-ship missile. Prior to that, the command insisted on equipping the boats with a naval version of the domestic Neptune missile system, which is still being developed. In addition, it was reported about the decision to build two boats as a light minesweeper.
Source: Dumskaya.net
