In Ukrainian society, attention is paid to the issues of security at sea and, accordingly, to the state and development of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But in the context of the information war that Russia runs against us, it is not surprising that these topical issues became the next platform for manipulation.
We are sincerely grateful to Ukrainian experts, our foreign partners who professionally analyze the issues of security at the sea and draw the attention of the people’s deputies of Ukraine, the Government, politicians and Ukrainian society to this extremely important aspect of protecting our national interests, and work systematically to strengthen Ukraine as a maritime state.
At the same time, the complexity of the issue, as well as the significant increase in cases of dissemination of inaccurate information, its distortion and substitution of recent facts and concepts, require a clear statement of the position of the Naval Forces Command of Ukraine regarding the prospects for the development of the national military fleet.
At the same time as conducting hostilities in the areas of the Counter-Terrorist Operation, and now – Combined Forces Operations, the implementation of combat missions to combat offensive armed aggression from the coastal area, one of the main tasks for the restoration of the navy of the Navy Command is laying the foundations for a systematic and sustainable development of the Naval Forces , as a form of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
To do this, based on the analysis of the development of the situation from the beginning of Russian aggression and taking into account world experience, the Naval Development Strategy is being developed. It takes into account both real threats to national security and real possibilities of our state for the development of the security and defense sector. Without a strategy it is impossible to successfully build such a complex system as a fleet. Its development involves almost all structures (military, civilian, scientific, analytical, representatives of partner countries, volunteer organizations) operating in the security sector. So deeply and consistently, Ukraine has not yet come up with the solution to the problem of systemic development of the Navy.

We clearly understand that the threats from the sea direction are real, and the situation on the Black and Azov Seas tends to aggravate. Russia has not abandoned its aggressive intentions and is conducting a coordinated hybrid war against Ukraine, as well as at sea. Increasing its grouping in the Crimea, quantitatively and qualitatively increasing the opportunities of the Black Sea Fleet, has been reinforced by the naval grouping of the FSB border service many times. All Russian studies at sea are frankly offensive. Russia has actually occupied most of our exclusive (maritime) economic zone and is robbing Ukrainian marine resources. As a hidden element of the blockade, arresting vessels in the Kerch Strait and the Sea of ​​Azov that use Ukrainian ports are being arrested. Russian aggression in the Black and Azov seas is a reality.
At the same time, the capabilities of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for an adequate response to Russian aggression are extremely limited, and we are aware of this. To protect the interests of Ukraine at sea, urgent reconstruction of our military fleet is urgently needed. But for this it’s not just very little time, it’s not already there – the Russians have an initiative at sea.
However, Ukraine has no other way out to rebuild our sea power, since the situation that has remained unaffected has a tendency to develop from bad to worse.
But the financial resource, the general state of the country’s economy, the real production capacity of our defense companies do not allow us to quickly restore our naval forces (“fast” according to the experience of the leading sea countries of the world – 20-25 years).
Understanding the threat, the criticality of the Navy’s Armed Forces, the real limitations of our state’s capabilities, the Naval Forces concentrated their efforts on phased recovery of the fleet.
Each stage is the achievement of specific capabilities of the Navy to address specific tasks in specific operational marine areas: coastal, near and far.
I emphasize that each stage should lead to a concrete result.

And we already have a certain result of the first stage – the restoration of our capabilities in the defense of the coast from the sea direction. At the expense of coastal artillery, maritime infantry and construction of coastal boats, we, in general, provide the defense of our coast, including anti-missile defense, along with the construction of offshore boats (small armored artillery boats and landing assault rifles). At this stage, we deliberately, despite criticism, focused on restoring the coastal component of our Navy, which allowed, by 2017, in the shortest possible time (actually in three years) to create a set of Marine and Artillery forces that exceeds the potential of the coastal troops Defense of the Navy of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in 2013.
Restoration of the ship’s component – a longer process. The period of construction of a serial ship of the class “corvet” in the developed countries of the world is 3-4 years. As an example, Turkey built its second, serial corvet 5 years. We do not have such a time, so now we are building small combat boats of the coastal zone. In the three years they built six, these are small armored boats project 58155 (Gyurza-M).
Unfortunately, the shipbuilding industry in Ukraine is in deep crisis, and it must also be restored. The process is synchronous and interconnected, the capabilities of the Naval Forces will increase along with the capabilities of the defense industry of Ukraine. Ukraine successfully implemented the construction of small armored artillery boats. We have no doubt that the next offshore boats – assault boats – will also be successfully built, and we have enough grounds to expect optimism in the construction of domestic missile boats.
Recently, it has become very popular to discuss the shock capabilities of boats in the coastal zone. I want to emphasize that these classes of combat boats do not have shocking capabilities, since their purpose is not the damage of the enemy’s ships, but the protection of ports, rivers, the detection of surface and airborne opponents, the destruction of sabotage and reconnaissance forces, the facilitation of land forces in the coastal zone, and this is completely different. things These boats solve problems that can not be solved by a rocket launcher, a corvettes or a frigate. They occupy an important, necessary, but not the main place in the future outline of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The defense of the coast is an important and necessary component, without which it is impossible to ensure the security of our country. At the same time, focusing exclusively on the coast, we completely give the enemy the initiative at sea. Restoring only the coast defense is insufficient. Therefore, small armored artillery boats and assault rifles are not, and can not be the basis of the Navy.

Now we are moving on to the implementation of the second stage – the stage of building our capabilities in the near sea area. The main tool for protecting national interests in this area is rocket weapons and their carriers – rocket launches, coastal rocket systems.
It is precisely on the development of sea rocket weapons and missile ships (boats) that the focus nowadays is the Navy Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The development of the Neptun Missile Complex for marine, coastal and airborne carriers, the Lan missile boat, Svitanok patrol aircraft continues.
Also, the search for alternative ways to purchase shipborne missiles abroad is being sought.
After realizing the objectives of this phase, we will have a set of forces at sea, based on rocket launches and coastal missile systems. They also have significant limitations. So, the weaknesses of rocket boats are their low seaworthiness and low combat stability, and for coastal missile systems, this is low mobility and the limitations of the range of the launch rocket impact.
However, despite these disadvantages, it is at the expense of the construction of rocket boats and coastal missile systems that we are able to create, as soon as possible, the missile impact forces of the Navy, as the main factor in deterring the enemy at sea.

Realizing that “the defense of their shores begins from the shores of the enemy”, the Navy should solve the problems in the far offshore zone (for the Navy of Ukraine it is the entire Black Sea area). Such tasks are capable of solving corvettes, submarines and strike aircraft.
The corvette in our view and should be the basis of the Navy. It is the multi-purpose ships that can significantly increase the efficiency of the use of strike forces, they will provide effective control of rocket and jacher strike groups, intelligence, electronic warfare, air defense. High seaworthiness and autonomy are inherent in corvettes, not combat boats.

No need to neglect the submarine fleet. Submarines for the Navy are not fantastic, but a real possibility. Ukraine is able to maintain and provide military use of modern super-submarines (these boats are quite sufficient for our Navy). Three to four submarines will keep the enemy under constant pressure and will cause him to divert a large amount of energy into anti-submarine action. Submarines themselves are capable, in the conditions of the enemy’s advantage at sea, to carry out, for example, the mines directly from the bases of the enemy, or to land on the coast of the enemy subdivisions of the SSR. It is submarines that are an integral part of all “small” but effective fleets
We understand that we will not achieve parity with the Black Sea Fleet of Russia, but this is not necessary in order to stop Russia’s aggression at sea. This requires a small, but efficient fleet. Examples of such a fleet are the Navy of Norway, Sweden and Israel.

We are building balanced navies that will be able to solve all the tasks assigned by our state. At the first stage it is a coastal fleet, on the second mosquito, on the third – balanced.
Replenishment of the ship’s structure may be due to construction in Ukraine, and at the expense of the purchase of ships, boats abroad.
The following important aspects, such as missile forces, fleet operational support, logistics and logistics systems, are not overlooked. Without these components, even the most advanced warships can not fully realize their potential, and sometimes they can not function at all. Because the fleet is a complicated system, and one in the field is not a warrior. The solution to all these problems will also be reflected in the Naval Development Strategy until 2035. The way of recovery of the fleet is long and not simple, but it is necessary to go through to ensure Ukraine’s security and protect national interests at sea. And we will pass it, because there is no other choice.
Such a way of restoration and development of a new Navy command of the Navy of the Armed Forces of Ukraine considers expedient and optimal in modern conditions, and will be submitted for consideration by the leadership of the state and the Ukrainian people.

P.S. After the publication of some “sofa fleet managers”, it seems that society deliberately distracts from the really painful problems of the Naval Forces building and draw attention to the invented “problem” of the failure of armored boats to sink the cruiser “Moscow”.