Russia launches new Tarantul-class corvette Strelok to strengthen coastal defense.

Russia launched the Tarantul-class corvette Strelok (Project 12418) at the Vympel shipyard, completing a long-delayed conversion of an older hull.

On September 18, 2025, bmpd reported that the Russian Vympel Shipyard, part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, launched the Tarantul-class corvette Strelok in Rybinsk, as a Project 12418 modernization of a 1990s-built hull. The 580-ton vessel carries Kh-35 Uran anti-ship missiles, upgraded radar and electronic systems, and new diesel engines, giving the Russian Navy a new vessel to use in patrols and coastal defense.
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The Tarantul-class, known in Russia as the Project 1241 Molniya, was developed in the early 1970s when NATO navies began fielding fast attack craft armed with 76 mm guns and missiles such as Exocet and Harpoon, which outclassed the Soviet Project 205 missile boats. (Picture source: Telegram/bmpd)

The Tarantul-class, known in Russian service as the Molniya series, was conceived at the beginning of the 1970s when NATO navies started introducing fast attack craft equipped with 76 mm artillery and anti-ship missiles such as Exocet, Oto Melara, and later Harpoon. The Soviet Project 205 boats armed only with small-calibre guns and limited missile capability were increasingly inadequate, leading to the decision to design a new missile-armed craft able to engage enemy warships, transports, and landing craft at ranges beyond the reach of opposing sensors. Design work then started in 1969 at the Almaz bureau, leading to the creation of the Project 1241-class with a steel hull of about 56 metres, an endurance of ten days, and a higher speed propulsion.

Variants included the domestic Project 1241.1 with P-15 Termit or P-270 Moskit missiles, and the export Project 1241.RE supplied to India, Vietnam, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Yemen. NATO designated the type Tarantul, with more than 80 hulls built from 1977 through the 1990s, including improved Project 12411 and export Project 12421, differing in propulsion, electronics, and missile systems. Project 12418 ships followed in the 1990s, adopting the Uran system with Kh-35 missiles of 130 km range, extendable to 260 km with later versions, plus new sensors, radars, and a reduced top speed of about 29 knots while keeping a ten-day autonomy.

The creation of the Strelok can be traced to an April 2016 contract under which Vympel agreed to complete, modernize, and repair two long-idle hulls originally built to the export Project 12421 Molniya standard, identified by factory numbers 01301 and 01302. Under that contract, their delivery had been scheduled for 2018–2019, but outfitting and modernization stretched into a protracted delay that left both hulls among the longest in-build vessels in recent Russian shipbuilding practice. The first of the pair, the Stupinets, was launched for the Caspian Flotilla on July 29, 2024, and later sent to the Caspian for trials in September 2025, while some Russian reports place Strelok’s waterline events variously in mid-August and mid-September 2025 as the yard completed the conversion of an early-1990s hull to the 12418 technical project. The ship now bears the hull number 705.

The Strelok possesses a full load displacement of about 580 tonnes, an overall length near 56.9 metres, and a beam of about 10.2 metres, values that place the ship within the Tarantul/Molniya footprint while allowing updated internal arrangements. The boat is rated for an approximate maximum speed of 29 knots, with a quoted sailing range on paper of roughly 2,900 nautical miles and an operational autonomy of about 10 days, figures that match the craft’s coastal strike and patrol profile. For the 12418 variant, the main propulsion was changed to two diesel-reduction units identified as M521 engines, a configuration that favors simpler control and extended range compared with earlier gas-turbine peak-speed variants in the family, and the internal architecture was adjusted to improve habitability for a small crew on extended littoral deployments.

The Strelok’s weaponry is centered around the Uran anti-ship missile system with 2 × 4 3S24 launchers carrying missiles of the Kh-35/3M24 families, the common 3M24 subsonic variant being reported with an engagement range near 130 kilometres and an improved 3M24U derivative noted as extending the effective reach to roughly 260 kilometres. The gun armament comprises one forward AK-176M 76 mm rapid-fire mount with a service ammunition load of 152 rounds, which provides a limited surface engagement capability. Short-range point defence is provided by two six-barrel AK-630M mounts whose effective firing envelope is commonly cited out to about 4,000 metres; the belt magazine capacities of these guns are said to be about 2,000 rounds per mount with an additional reserve belt of about 1,000 rounds each, producing a substantial short-range ammunition supply across the two installations. Point air defence is further augmented by man-portable Igla systems in the ship’s fit, while expendable passive decoys and electronic countermeasure systems such as the MP-405-1E are included to reduce detection and missile effectiveness.

The ship’s detection and engagement chain is built around the Mineral-ME radar system plus the Positiv-ME1 navigation and surveillance radar for situational awareness, while the artillery gun direction is handled by the MR-123-02 fire control system and Uran engagements managed through associated 3R-60U type missile fire-control interfaces. The modernization also includes radio-electronic warfare payloads drawn from the Vympel family of active jammers, the use of PK-16 and optionally PK-10 expendable decoy launchers for passive countermeasures, and sensors intended to integrate navigation, communications, and weapons management so the vessel can operate either autonomously or as a networked member of a larger strike group.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.