December 6, 2017

The Ukrainian Navy named the last four of its overall six Gurza-M-class artillery boats in a ceremony at the Odessa Port on December 5.

Named Vyshgorod, Kremenchug, Luben and Nikopol, the four boats carry names of Ukrainian cities.

The first two units, commissioned December 2016, are named Akkerman (U174) and Berdiansk (U175). Up to 18 vessels in the class are expected to be acquired for the Ukrainian Navy.

The ceremony concluded with all six boats in the class heading out to sea with Ukrainian Navy flagship Hetman Sahaydachniy (U130).

The Gurza-M boats are domestically built by the Leninska Kuznya shipyard and form the backbone of the Ukrainian Navy’s mosquito fleet which the navy considers as a more cost- and time-effective option for maintaining presence at sea.

The 23-meter boats are suited for operation within 50 miles of their base and field two modules of remote-controlled 30-mm guns, a 7.62 mm machine gun, 30-mm grenade launchers, and anti-tank and anti-air missile launchers.