Ukrainian Forces Destroy Frigate Admiral Essen and Small Missile Hovercraft During Attack on Novorossiysk

Ukrainian Defense Forces struck the Project 11356 frigate Admiral Essen and a Project 1239 small hovercraft missile ship during an attack on Novorossiysk on the night of May 23.

A video of the strike was published by the commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert ‘Madyar’ Brovdi.

The strikes were carried out by units of the 9th ‘Kairos’ Battalion of the 414th Umanned Strike Aviation Brigade of the ‘Birds of Madyar’ Unmanned Systems Forces and the 1st Center of the Unmanned Systems Forces, in coordination with other deep-strike units of the Special Operations Forces.

Judging by the published video, one of the strike drones struck the frigate Admiral Essen — a carrier of Kalibr missiles—in the side near the deck. At least three other strike UAVs attacked the frigate, which attempted to shoot down the drones using its standard Osa-M air defense system. However, the extent of the damage to the ships is currently unknown.

In addition, the commander of the USF confirmed the strike on the Grushova oil depot in Novorossiysk (one of the largest tank farms and oil depots in southern Russia) as well as on the Sheshkharis oil terminal.

The Grushova oil depot and the marine terminal located directly on the coast form a single industrial complex, called “Sheskharis transshipment complex.” The site’s total storage capacity is approximately 1.2–1.25 million cubic meters of oil and petroleum products, with 40–47 tanks currently in operation.

The Project 1239 Small Missile Ship

The Project 1239 Sivuch small missile ships were developed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau as an evolution of the Project 1234 Ovod small missile ships, taking into account the experience of deploying these ships in combat service in the Mediterranean Sea.

These ships are designed to destroy large enemy vessels and provide cover for their own formations and convoys in coastal areas and inland seas. In total, 16 MRKs of this type were planned for the Soviet Navy. The first three ships were laid down in the 1980s, but only two were completed — the Bora and the Samum, which ended up in the Russian Federation’s Black Sea Fleet.

The ship’s full displacement is 1,000 tons. Length: 64 m, width: 17.2 m, draft: 3.8 m, or 1 m when the air cushion pumps are in operation.

The artillery armament consists of one 76 mm AK-176 gun and two six-barrel 30 mm AK-630 automatic cannons. The missile armament consists of two four-cell launchers for supersonic anti-ship Moskit missiles and one two-cell launcher for the Osa-M air defense system with a warhead load of 20 missiles.

The ship’s two narrow hulls are made of corrosion-resistant aluminum-magnesium alloys and covered by a platform 64 meters long and 18 meters wide. The internal bulkheads are also made of lightweight alloy. It is possible to close the opening between the hulls in the bow and stern sections with a two-tier flexible partition to create an air cushion.

Consequently, the vessel can easily transform into either a catamaran capable of speeds up to 20 knots or a high-speed air-cushion craft capable of speeds up to 45 knots. Its range is 2,500 miles at 12 knots or 800 miles at 45 knots and its endurance is up to 10 days. Its crew consists of 68 people.