Russian Navy Commissions Admiral Essen Frigate

The Russian Navy has commissioned Admiral Essen frigate during a ceremony at the Yantar Shipyard in the westernmost port of Kaliningrad on Tuesday.

The new ship will be assigned to the Black Sea Fleet.

"We are very satisfied with the ship. It has a balanced weapons suite - an artillery system, the sophisticated Kalibr [NATO reporting name: SS-N-27 Sizzler] missile system and a well-balanced up-to-date Shtil-1 [SA-N-12 Grizzly] surface-to-air missile system," Navy’s Shipbuilding Department Chief Vladimir Tryapichnikov told TASS after the ceremony.

The frigate was laid down in July 8 2011 and floated out in November 2014. Its official tests took place in the Baltic and Barents seas and were completed on May 30 this year.

The ship has a balanced weapons suite, an artillery system, the sophisticated Kalibr missile system and a well-balanced up-to-date Shtil-1 surface-to-air missile system.

The Black Sea Fleet is to receive six Project 11356 frigates. The lead ship of the family, the Admiral Grigorovich, was delivered on March 11, 2016. The third frigate in the class, the Admiral Makarov, is scheduled for delivery in the third quarter of 2016.