This is the winning design in the main nomination «Innovative Littoral Combat Ship» of the specialized international contest held by the United Shipbuilding Corporation of Russia in 2010.

 

The project shows rather conceptual than strict engineering approach. At the same time, authors intentionally focused on design itself in an attempt to predict the most relevant next generation ship exterior, to make it not just abstractly «decent looking», but to set a trend, to come up with the optimal solution to the combat power, efficiency, and displacement balance dilemma.

 

Although the proa layout is not quite commonly used, the similar relatively large proa ships exist, and perform pretty well. Of course this layout has its flaws and limitations, but in our case it seems like justified decision, as it offers a range of extra capabilities which are far more important than the corresponding inconveniences. The overall advantage is based on the simple principle: «More open deck area and more inner space means more efficiency for the ship of the same displacement».

 

Besides the contest media campaign, the project was presented to the public at the 2011 International Maritime Defense Show in Saint Petersburg as a part of the USC exposition, and drew much attention.