On November 18, newest small missile ships Serpukhov and Zeleny Dol of the Black Sea Fleet arrived at their stationing location in Sevastopol, says press center of RF Defence Ministry. Prior to this they had passed all state tests in Novorossiysk and completed their daily transfer to the Black Sea Fleet main base.
The arrival of two newest ships is significant for the Black Sea Fleet servicemen since ships of this class have not been assigned to the Fleet since 2002 when Samum missile ship was transferred to Sevastopol from the Baltic.
A ceremony was held in Sevastopol to meet the ships, in which the commander of the Crimean naval base Captain I rank Yuri Zemsky took part and congratulated the ship crews on completing the tests and arriving at their home base.
The missile ships arrived in Sevastopol bearing the flag of the Russian Federation but soon the St Andrew’s flag will be raised on the ships and they will join the missile boat formation of the Black Sea Fleet.
Small missile ships Zeleny Dol and Serpukhov are the fourth and the fifth ships of the modernized Buyan-M series built at the Zelenodolsky shipyard within the Navy shipbuilding programme.
They have increased displacement and besides self defence means they are also equipped with a new Kalibr-NK long range missile system.