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Old 06-19-2021, 06:43 AM
Ursus Maior Ursus Maior is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus View Post
Thanks, Ursus. That's a helpful start. I'd like to get a ship class (eg Krivak, Udaloy, etc.) breakdown, if possible. Actual ship names would be ideal, but that might be asking a bit much.

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Wikipedia is a good place for research here as all Soviet/Russian types of destroyers have a total list of produced ships with names and yards available. Yards almost ever give away the fleet, it's noted if otherwise. So for 1988-1990 timeframe we have:

Destroyers
  • Kotlin-class: Byvalvyy, Besslednyy, Burlivyy, Blagorodnyy, Blestyashchyy, Plammeny, Naporystyy (all ASW-variant), Bravyy (SAM-variant Type 56K, not the the Type 56A SAM variant, not sure what's the difference, though).
  • Kashin-class: Komsomolets Ukrainy, Soobrazitelnyy, Provornyy, Krasny Kavkaz, Reshitelnyy, Strogiy, Smetlivy, Krasny Krym, Sposobnyy, Skoryy (all baseline Project 61; note: Orel, later Otvazhny sank in 1974 after a missile fire accident), Stroynyy (decommissioned in 1990), Smyshlenyy (both Project 61MP; note: Smelyy was leased in 1988 to Poland, becoming ORP Warszawa), plus Sderzhanny (Project 61M).
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanin-...stroyer-class: Gnevnyy, Upornyy, Boykiy. The latter two were decommissioned in 1987 and 1988 respectively.

Not totally sure if the count adds up with that of Military Balance, though. There might be a difference there of 1-2 vessels.

Frigates

I presume Military Balance lists corvettes as frigates, at least when it comes to the Soviet Union. Denominations vary a lot in navies. The problem is, the USSR built a lot of ship types and often several iterations of the same type for different tasks. Also, they built stuff that looks funky to Western analysts or gamers like me, e. g. a hover craft corvette, which might qualify as a coastal combatant, but at 1,000+ tons might also be to large for that. So, I cannot really tell you what Military Balance counts as what. Wikipedia has a nice list of ship types however.
  • Project 1135 (Krivak I): 7 ships, names as per link.
  • Project 11351 Nerey (Krivak III): 9 ships, names as per link above.
  • Bora-class hovercraft: the aforementioned fast-attack hover corvette; 1 commissioned in 1989, 1 to follow in 1992.
  • Grisha-class corvette: At least 3 were in service in the Russian navy after 2000 and they were of the Grisha I and III classes. Probably more were built for the Black Sea Fleet.

The lack of modern Udaloys and Sovremenny destroyers is immediately noted, but can be explained by the disadvantageous position of the Black Sea Fleet, which indeed has everything to do with the Black Sea itself. It's a marginal sea that locks the USSR from accessing the Mediterranean Sea, which itself is marginal as well, but of course of huge strategical importance. Also, the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits governs access to and from the Black Sea and puts limits on what the Soviets could transit to and from the Black Sea without infringing upon the sovereignty of Turkey. Turkey itself had a Black Sea presence, but was hardly in a position to attack the USSR by amphibian operations. So, the Black Sea Fleet became somewhat of a stepchild of USSR naval plannings.
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