Russia’s newest Pantsyr-ME air defense missile/gun system is expected to be delivered to the Navy is next two years.
"It will be tested from next year, first on the land-based stand and then it will be delivered to one of the ships," Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau CEO Alexander Shlyakhtenko told TASS on Tuesday.
As CEO of High Precision Systems Corporation Alexander Denisov said, the trials are expected to be completed in a year or two and the Russian Navy has already ordered this seaborne air defense missile complex.
A Project 22800 Karakurt corvette is expected to be the first to receive the Pantsyr-ME. According to earlier report by TASS, the Pantsyr-ME would be mounted on a Project 1241 Molniya missile corvette and undergo trials in the Black Sea.
The Pantsyr-ME is the shipborne version of the Pantsyr air defense missile/gun system. Its land-based version is called Pantsyr-S. The seaborne version can be outfitted with missiles from the land-based variant and also with the promising Germes-K missile, which can be guided by a drone. The Pantsyr-ME is set to replace the Kortik system.