Russia is expanding and enhancing its fleet of littoral vessels capable of operating in rivers and near shore areas such as the Volga/Caspian Sea and Dnieper/Black Sea basins as well as in the Baltic. Two new classes of ships are announced: the 949 ton, 64.1 meter “Buyan” serves as primarily an artillery platform capable of delivering heave strikes on near-shore targets and the smaller 800 ton 60 meter “Karakurt” that can deliver in addition to artillery fire longer range strikes by the “Kaliber” class cruise missiles, reports Tsargrad TV.