This hydrofoil missile corvette had a very advanced design. Unlike previous Soviet hydrofoil boats the Project 1240 had fully submerged foils with propellers mounted on the after set of foils. The corvette achieved a speed of 61 knots and had a heavy armament.

The ship's hull was made of AMG-62T-1 aluminum-magnesium alloy panels, and the underwater wings were made of 48OT3V titanium alloy. The bow foil is a split V surface-piercing type (seen in the illustration) which carries about 60% of the lift and the single fully submerged foil aft carries the remaining 40%. The rear foil is supported by two vertical struts, each of which carries a propeller on each end of the propulsion pod at the lower end of the strut. At low speed the bow wing, rear struts with propellers got out of the water. The movement in this mode was carried out by two pump-jets, powered by two diesel engines.

At 430 tons, MRK-5 was the largest operational naval hydrofoil at the time.

During its life, the MRK-5 conducted two missile firing with the main Malakhit missile system, demonstrating excellent seaworthiness on testing. He also had a very high speed. However, the operation of the ship was very difficult.

Missile corvette MRK-5 was built at the Primorsky Shipyard, Leningrad (yard No.41), launched 1973, commissioned 30 December 1977.

19 April 1990, the missile corvette MRK-5 was excluded from the lists of the fleet and scrapped.