Like the rest of the class, it is a surface effect ship armed with anti-ship missiles.

MRK-17 was laid down in September 1991 and launched on 12 October 1992 at the A.M. Gorky Shipyard, Zelenodolsk and commissioned into the Baltic Fleet on 26 February 2000.

[1] On 19 March 1992, the vessel was renamed Samum, after the Russian word for the simoom desert wind.

[2] According to Ukrainian intelligence sources, afterwards the ship was towed away for "extensive damage" on one side.

The Russian defense ministry claimed however that the attack was repelled.