Ukraine’s second Ada-class corvette in final stages

Ukraine’s second Turkish-built warship, the corvette Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi, is close to completion in Istanbul and is preparing to put to sea for the first time, Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, said on Thursday.

“The work is in its final stages,” Budanov wrote on X after touring the ship, which the Turkish defense company STM is building for the Ukrainian Navy.

Budanov, who led Ukraine’s military intelligence agency until he moved to the presidential office in January, said he met the corvette’s commander, Captain 2nd Rank Yurii Pyshchyk, a rank equivalent to commander in the U.S. Navy, and spoke with the crew.

“The sailors are ready for action, and preparations are in full swing,” he wrote. He opened the post with a short line: “The Ukrainian Navy is getting stronger.”

According to Budanov, the next steps are “the ship’s first trip out to sea, trials, and handover to Ukraine,” which means the corvette has not yet sailed under its own power.

That puts the ship close to the edge of the schedule STM set two years ago. At the August 2024 launch ceremony, STM chief executive Özgür Güleryüz said the corvette would make its first voyage in 2026 and be handed to Kyiv in the first quarter of 2027. Seven weeks of 2026 remain.

The Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi is an Ada-class corvette, a Turkish design of compact warship built mainly to hunt submarines. The class displaces about 2,400 tonnes, according to Defence24. The ship is named after Ivan Vyhovskyi, a 17th-century Cossack hetman.

STM signed the deal with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry on Dec. 17, 2020. The contract covers two corvettes built in Turkey plus a transfer of technology, according to the company, which describes it as “Türkiye’s first and only corvette export to Europe.”

Construction on the second ship began in October 2022, and its keel was laid on Aug. 18, 2023, Janes reported. First Lady Olena Zelenska broke a bottle of champagne on the hull when it was launched on Aug. 1, 2024.

The first ship, the Hetman Ivan Mazepa, is meant to become the Ukrainian Navy’s flagship. It was launched in October 2022 and began sea acceptance trials in the Sea of Marmara in May 2024, Naval News reported after STM confirmed the start of trials.

Neither ship has a clear route home. Since early 2022, Turkey has closed the Bosphorus and Dardanelles to warships of the countries at war under the 1936 Montreux Convention. Defence24 called it “highly doubtful” that the Mazepa would see combat in the current war and expected it to wait in Turkey until its sister ship was finished.

STM’s project page still lists the Hetman Ivan Vyhovskyi as “scheduled for delivery in 2027.”