SEVASTOPOL, April 29. /TASS/. The crew of the Black Sea Fleet’s patrol vessel Vasily Bykov repelled an attack by a notional enemy’s aircraft during air defense drills, the Fleet’s press office reported on Wednesday.”Under the drills’ scenario, during the anchorage at the naval station of Novorossiysk, the ship’s commander received information about the enemy’s plans to employ air attack weapons and deliver a missile strike against the naval base’s facilities,” the press office said in a statement.During the drills, the artillery combat teams practiced the algorithm of measures to prepare for thwarting an air attack and carried out operations to search for, track and notionally destroy air targets, the statement says.The Vasily Bykov is the Project 22160 lead ship laid down at the Zelenodolsk Shipyard in the Volga area in 2014 and made operational in the Russian Navy in 2018 after its construction was completed at the Zaliv Shipyard in Kerch. The patrol ship was designed by the Severnoye Design Bureau (part of the United Shipbuilding Corporation). The patrol ship Vasily Bykov entered service with the Russian Black Sea Fleet in December 2018.Russia’s Black Sea Fleet currently operates two Project 22160 ships, the Vasily Bykov and the Dmitry Rogachev.Project 22160 ships are designated to protect the state’s maritime economic zone. The patrol ships are also capable of accomplishing escort and anti-piracy missions and carrying out search and rescue operations. They are armed with a 76.2mm artillery gun, an anti-aircraft missile system and machine-guns. They can develop a speed of 30 knots, have an operating range of 6,000 nautical miles and their sea endurance is 60 days.
