Russia and China building littoral warships

As the USA proceeds with its littoral combat ship program, other nations are building less versatile and less expensive craft for littoral warfare and patrol roles. In addition to Sweden’s Visby class corvettes (recently upgraded to a “Visby Plus” configuration) and Norway’s smaller Skjold class air cushion catamarans, the Russians are introducing a new corvette class that could compete with the LCS for export dollars. Meanwhile, the Chinese are introducing advanced wave-piercing catamaran designs into their own littoral fleet.

While the Chinese ships are not in the same league as the USA’s LCS, they could be key opponents in a future Taiwan Straits scenario. The Russian project 2038.0 corvettes, on the other hand, could provide serious export competition for nations with lower budgets, or impaired access to advanced US technologies.