Russia’s Project 20380 Corvettes: Can They Compete with the Navy LCS Fleet?

File Video Report Above: Navy Fires Off Hellfire From LCS – How Will it Change Combat?

By Kris Osborn – President & Editor-In-Chief, Warrior Maven

The Russian Navy is known to be much smaller and less capable than the U.S. Navy, yet there are indications that Russia is upgunning some of its lighter-class warships in what could be an effort to keep pace with the U.S.

Russia’s Project 20380 Corvettes & Navy LCS Fleet

Russia’s Project 20380 Corvettes seem somewhat analogous to the U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ship in terms of configuration, size, scope and mission envelope. Some recent Russian live-fire exercises from Corvettes with Baltic Fleet suggest the service may be pursuing its own version of what the U.S. Navy has called “distributed lethality.”

As far back as 2015, the U.S. Navy began an ambitious fleet-wide effort to greatly upgun its surface fleet for major power warfare with new weapons, interceptors, deck-launched missiles and countermeasures. 

The strategy was quite impactful with ships such as the lighter, faster and potentially more vulnerable LCS fleet. Therefore the Navy armed the LCS with over-the-horizon offensive missiles such as the Naval Strike Missile and upgraded ship defenses integrated with longer-range more precise interceptor weapons. The effort also extended to destroyers and amphibious assault ships and even efforts to further weaponize carriers for war with advanced defenses.

None of this was likely lost on the Russians who have, perhaps even in a copycat fashion, up-armed its lighter warships such as Corvettes. This Russian effort continues, as evidenced by a recent live-fire anti-ship missile exercise in the Baltic Sea against a “notional” enemy warship, according to TASS.