Black Sea Naval Actions

[Raellus]

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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[Ursus Maior]

Originally Posted by Raellus

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.

[Raellus]

Thanks so much, Ursus. I really appreciate you going to all that trouble.

I went through my copy of Encyclopedia of Warships (Robert Jackson, 2006) last night and found references to the following vessels also being part of the Black Sea Fleet during the late Cold War period.

2 Sverdlov class gun cruisers: Admiral Ushakov,
1 Kynda class rocket cruister: Admiral Golovko
2 Slava class guided missile cruisers: Marshal Ustinov*, Admiral Lobov**

X Mirka I & II class FFLs (apparently all of them served in the Black Sea)

2 Alligator Class landing ships

For submarines, I found a Tango prototype, a Whiskey 'Twin Cylinder', and a Kilo fitted with pumpjet propulsion. I doubt that's it. I'll have to poke around some more on Wikipedia and see what else I can dig up.

*According to Wikipedia, the Marshal Ustinov is part of the Northern Fleet and the Moskva is part of the Black Sea Fleet, but that is current operational status.

**This vessel was ceded to Ukraine upon dissolution of the USSR (where it is known as the Ukrayina)- I'm assuming that the Soviets would have held on to it had the USSR not dissolved.

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[Ursus Maior]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Thanks so much, Ursus. I really appreciate you going to all that trouble.

I went through my copy of Encyclopedia of Warships (Robert Jackson, 2006) last night and found references to the following vessels also being part of the Black Sea Fleet during the late Cold War period.

2 Sverdlov class gun cruisers: Admiral Ushakov,
1 Kynda class rocket cruister: Admiral Golovko
2 Slava class guided missile cruisers: Marshal Ustinov*, Admiral Lobov**

X Mirka I & II class FFLs (apparently all of them served in the Black Sea)

2 Alligator Class landing ships

For submarines, I found a Tango prototype, a Whiskey 'Twin Cylinder', and a Kilo fitted with pumpjet propulsion. I doubt that's it. I'll have to poke around some more on Wikipedia and see what else I can dig up.

*According to Wikipedia, the Marshal Ustinov is part of the Northern Fleet and the Moskva is part of the Black Sea Fleet, but that is current operational status.

**This vessel was ceded to Ukraine upon dissolution of the USSR (where it is known as the Ukrayina)- I'm assuming that the Soviets would have held on to it had the USSR not dissolved.

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The Marshal Ustinov was pretty certainly not part of the Black Sea Fleet as the local shipyard there had built Dzerzhinsky, Admiral Nakhimov, Mikhail Kutuzov and started Admiral Kornilov (never finished). The three Sverdlovs of the Black Sea Fleet had mixed service lives. Kutuzov was - officially - only decommissioned in 2000, but I don't know in what state. Certainly she had no battle value by then. Dzerzhinsky was decommissioned in 1989. That's about as long as I could imagine for a gun cruiser. Actually, it's 25 year to much...

There could have been a couple of Mirka-class frigates in the Black Sea by then, but I have nearly not info on that class. Also, it's funny they would be classed as frigates. At under 1,200 tons fully loaded, it's hardly in the ball park of even contemporary frigates. But hey, they got a radar, a HMS, a dipper, torpedoes, RBUs and four (!) 76 mm guns. So I guess they count. Mirkas were exclusively built in Kaliningrad, though. So, I don't know if any made the transfer.

The other cruisers were the Admiral Golovko (Kynda), the flagship fleet of the Black Sea Fleet back then. Then the Moskva (Slava), which is still in service today. The main force in the Black Sea Fleet were three of the seven Kara-class guided-missile cruisers, Nikolayev, Ochakov, Kerch and Azov. The other three went to the Pacific fleet. The Karas were essentially enlarged Kresta II-class cruisers and at 8,000-10,000 tons they packed quite a punch.

Submarines: I have no clue as my data is sparse there. But they built Tangos in that lake and I know of some Kilos. So my bet is on those plus Foxtrots and Whiskeys, because there were 250+ Whiskeys built by the USSR and I'll be damned if none made it to the Black Sea.