The command to float out the warship was given by United Shipbuilding Corporation Vice-President and Severnaya Verf CEO Igor Ponomaryov.

ST. PETERSBURG, June 30. /TASS/. The Severnaya Verf Shipyard in St. Petersburg in northwest Russia has floated out the Project 20385 corvette Gremyashchiy armed with the Kalibr-NK missile complex, a TASS correspondent reports from the scene.

The corvette will start undergoing trials in August and is expected to be transferred to the Navy before the end of 2018.

The Gremyashchiy is the first Project 20385 corvette built after the upgrade of the corvette basic Project 20380. The Severnaya Verf Shipyard is also building the second warship of this class, the Provorny.

The project has been developed by the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau. Multipurpose corvettes of this type are designed for detecting and destroying enemy submarines and surface ships, providing for amphibious landings and solving various tasks in the near sea zone. The project stipulates a hangar for a Kamov Ka-27 helicopter.

Project 20385 corvettes displace 2,200 tonnes and have an operational range of 3,500 miles and a cruising capacity of 15 days. They are armed with Kalibr-NK cruise missiles, the Redut air defense missile system and the Paket anti-submarine warfare complex.