April 17, 2013: In March Russia put into the service the first of their Buyan-M class corvettes. This is one of several new Russian designs intended for coastal patrol. At the high end there is the 2,200 ton Stereguschyy class corvettes that entered service in 2007. Six of these have been ordered or are in service. At the low end there’s the 550 ton Buyan that entered service in 2006. Only three were built before it was decided that the larger and more heavily armed Buyan-M was the way to go.

Buyan-M is a 950 ton ship that is 74 meters (243 feet) long and has a crew of 36. Top speed is 45 kilometers an hour and endurance is ten days. Armament consists of a 100mm gun, two 14.5mm machine-guns, two AK-630 multibarrel 30mm autocannon for close range defense against missiles and aircraft. There are eight vertical launch tubes holding 1.2 ton 3K14 Kaliber anti-ship missiles (range 300 kilometers). There is also a short-range (5-6 kilometers) missile system (Gibkha 3M47) with eight missiles. There is an air/surface radar and optional sonar. The heavily armed Buyan-M provides you with a low-cost patrol vessel that can handle just about anything it runs into during coastal patrols and can even be useful in wartime.