Project 22800 was first publicly presented by Almaz in 2015.[9] Project 22800 derives from Project 12300 Skorpion, a proposed 1990s Almaz design for a 500 ton displacement missile boat[10], and was also heavily influenced by Project 21631, the Buyan-M corvette.[9] The Karakurts have a stealth shaped superstructure with an integrated mast carrying four phased array radar panels.[9] The primary armament consists of Kalibr-NK cruise missiles or P-800 Oniks supersonic anti-ship missiles carried in eight UKSK vertical launching system cells in the rear part of the superstructure, behind the bridge.[9] The corvettes built for the Russian Navy will be equipped with a 76.2 mm AK-176MA automatic dual-purpose gun, a modernized version of the AK-176. A proposed export version may carry the Italian OTO Melara 76 mm gun.[11] For anti-missile defense, the first two ships will only carry a pair of AK-630M gun-based CIWS. Starting from the third ship, the Karakurts will be equipped with Pantsir-M, a navalized version of the Pantsir surface-to-air missile system.[1] The Karakurts are not designed for anti-submarine warfare.