Having considered in the previous articles the state of our submarine and mosquito fleets, as well as ships of the near sea zone (corvettes), we should move on to frigates, but we will still leave them for later. The heroes of our today's article are destroyers and large anti-submarine ships of the Russian Navy.
According to our tradition, we will list all the ships of these classes that were listed in our navy as of December 1, 2015.
Project 01090 patrol ship "Sharp-witted" - 1 piece.
When it entered service, it was listed as a large anti-submarine ship of project 61 "Komsomolets Ukrainy", which, with a certain stretch, allows it to be classified as a destroyer (at least at the time of its appearance). Standard displacement (before modernization) - 3 440 tons, speed - up to 34 knots (in young years), armament - 2 * 4 missile launchers "Uran", 2 * 2 SAM "Volna", 1 * 2 76-m AK-726, 2 RBU-6000, 1 five-tube 533 mm torpedo tube.
Ships of this type became, if not revolutionary, then at least a landmark for the USSR Navy. Before them, the fleet included only artillery destroyers built on principles dating back to World War II, and even the 57-bis missile was nothing more than a modernization of the purely artillery destroyers of Project 56.
But the BODs of Project 61 were developed from scratch, and in terms of saturation with electronics and missile weapons, they left the 57-bis far behind. In addition, a fundamentally new power plant was used on them - a gas turbine, thanks to the characteristic sounds of which the BODs of this project were nicknamed "singing frigates". At the time of their appearance, these were modern and very formidable ships, whose combat capabilities roughly corresponded to their American counterparts - the Charles F. Adams destroyers. In total, 20 BODs of Project 61 were built in the USSR, all of them joined the ranks of the Soviet Navy in 1962-1973, and "Smetlivy" is the last of them who managed to survive to this day.
Without a doubt, today the Project 61 ship looks like a museum rarity, and in order to maintain at least some combat value, the Smetlivy BOD has undergone modernization. Without a doubt, his Titan hydroacoustic complex has long been outdated. Therefore, instead of a 76-mm stern mount and a helipad (unfortunately, there was no hangar on the Project 61 ships), the MNK-300 submarine non-acoustic detection system was installed with a 300-meter towed antenna that senses the thermal, radiation and noise signals of the submarine. In addition, instead of RBU-1000, two Uran missile launchers were installed, and all this was supplemented with new radars and jammers. All this, of course, did not return the ship to its youth, but nevertheless, in conflicts, as it is now customary to say, of "low intensity", "Sharp-witted" poses a certain danger - and not only for its crew. The new submarine detection complex, combined with long-range 533-mm torpedoes, made the Sharp-witted submarine defenseless against enemy submarines, at least those that can be expected to be found on the Black Sea. Eight "Uranus" are able to destroy an enemy frigate or a pair of missile boats. Two ancient air defense systems with beam-type launchers are practically useless in modern naval combat, but a single "land" aircraft or helicopter, perhaps, will be able to drive away. Of course, it would be nice to replace them with modern "Armor", with which the ship's air defense would go to a fundamentally new level. But "Sharp-witted" entered service in 1969 and is about to "knock" 49 (forty-nine!) Years old, so, without a doubt, it is high time for the ship not to modernize, but to retire - one can only hope that the management countries will find money to make a museum ship out of the last "singing frigate".
BOD project 1134B "Kerch" - 1 unit.
Standard displacement - 6,700 tons, speed up to 32 knots, armament: 2 * 4 PLUR "Rastrub-B", 2 * 2 SAM "Storm-N", 2 * 2 SAM "Osa", 2 * 2 76-mm AK- 726, 4 * 6 AK-630, 2 * 5 533 mm torpedo tubes, 2 RBU-6000, 2 RBU-1000, Ka-25 helicopter in the hangar.
The idea of building large anti-submarine ships arose after the emergence of American "city killers" - American nuclear submarines with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear strikes on the territory of the USSR from a distance of 2,200 - 4,600 km (firing range of Polaris of various modifications). They tried to assign the task of destroying enemy SSBNs to the surface fleet by building large enough ships with the latest and sufficiently powerful hydroacoustic systems, as well as powerful air defense, since they were to operate in the zone of dominance of enemy aircraft.
Despite the fact that such ideas were more than dubious (outside the range of their own aviation, no anti-aircraft missile systems could provide the combat stability of the ship group), for their implementation, one of the most successful and beautiful ships of the USSR was created - the BOD of project 1134A. Their development was the BODs of project 1134B, built in the amount of 7 units, of which only one "Kerch" survived until 2015. However, even then it was clear that the ship would never return to service: the whole point is that on November 4, 2014, during a major overhaul, after which "Kerch" had to replace the missile cruiser "Moskva" as the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet (it was the turn of the RRC to be repaired), a strong fire broke out, severely damaging the aft compartments of the BOD.
The restoration of the BOD, which at that time was already 39 years old, was considered irrational. And so it was in fact: upgrades, during which the outdated Blizzard PLUR was replaced by Rastrub-B, and the Shtorm air defense system was brought to the Shtorm-N modification, of course, increased the ship's combat capability, but the old hydroacoustic equipment does not allow "Kerch" to successfully fight the latest submarines. GAS "Titan-2", installed on this BOD, detected (as far as you can understand - boats of the 3rd generation) at a distance of no more than 10 km, which, of course, is completely insufficient, and even today the US Navy is actively replenishing the 4th generation atomarin …
After the fire, "Kerch" was transferred to the reserve, where she performed the functions of the floating headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet and the training ship of the submarine, and the only question was whether to dispose of the ship, or to keep it as a naval museum. In 2016, there was information about the removal of turbines from "Kerch", and their transfer to the TFR "Ladny" (project 1135), but whether this was done, the author of this article does not know. According to the latest data (October 2017), "Kerch" will nevertheless become a museum, although it is not yet possible to say exactly in which year this will happen.
This is where the list of "oldies" among the destroyers of the Russian Navy ends, and we move on to the ships that make up the core of our "destroyer" fleet - the BOD of Project 1155 and the destroyers of Project 956. These BODs and the destroyer are united not only by the fact that they were created for joint actions with each other, but also the fact that both of them "grew" out of projects of ships for a completely different purpose.
Destroyers of project 956 - 8 units.
Standard displacement = 6,500 tons, speed - up to 33, 4 knots, armament - 2 * 4 anti-ship missiles "Mosquito", 2 * 1 anti-missile system M-22 "Uragan", 2 * 2 130-mm AK-130, 4 * 6 30-mm AK-630, 2/2 533-mm torpedo tubes, 2 RBU-1000, a Ka-27 helicopter in a telescopic hangar.
The history of the creation of the Project 956 destroyer began when it became clear that the artillery ships of the fleet - the destroyers of the Project 56 and the light cruisers of the Project 68-bis - were aging, and the time was not far off when it would be time for them to "retire." At the same time, the task of fire support for the amphibious assault continued to remain relevant, and this required no less than a 130-mm artillery system. The development of a ship of a new type began on the basis of the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 715-250 of September 1, 1969, but it will become a destroyer later, but for now it was a question of a "ship of fire support for the landing", which was charged with:
- suppression of small-sized ground targets, as well as anti-amphibious defense objects, accumulations of enemy personnel and military equipment;
- fire support for the airborne and antiboat defense of the landing force in the landing area and at the transition by sea;
- the destruction of surface ships and landing craft of the enemy in conjunction with other forces of the fleet.
It was assumed that the newest ship will be used primarily as part of the amphibious squads.
In order for the ship to perform tasks "along the main profile", work began on the creation of the most powerful automatic two-gun 130-mm AK-130 installations, capable of providing a rate of fire of up to 90 rounds per minute. The artillery cellar was fully mechanized, including the supply of ammunition, so that the AK-130 was essentially a fully automated system.
However, the further development of this project was greatly influenced by the appearance in the US Navy of the first universal destroyer URO - "Spruance", which received good sonar equipment, anti-submarine and anti-aircraft missiles, 127th artillery system, 20-mm "Vulcan-Phalanx" and 324- mm torpedo tubes, as well as two anti-submarine helicopters, which, however, could also be used by the AGM-119 Penguin anti-ship missiles. Originally, the Spruens did not carry other anti-ship weapons, but were later equipped with the Harpoon anti-ship missile system.
The USSR was unable to create a universal ship in the displacement of a destroyer - in principle, our analogue weapons were usually more powerful (for example, the Blizzard PLUR had a range of up to 50 km, the ASROC PLUR, at that time - up to 9 km), but when an attempt was made to combine them in one ship, its displacement exceeded every conceivable limit for a destroyer. Therefore, the leadership of the USSR Navy ultimately inclined towards the idea of two specialized ships, which would have to act together and have combat qualities superior to those of a pair of destroyers "Spruence". Such a pair should have been formed by the destroyer of Project 956 and BOD of Project 1155. At the same time, the destroyer was entrusted with the tasks of anti-ship warfare, air defense and landing support, and the BOD was assigned anti-submarine warfare and "finished off" air targets that broke through the fire of medium-range air defense systems installed on destroyer.
In accordance with the above, in addition to two AK-130 installations, the Project 956 destroyer received two Uragan air defense systems with missiles using a semi-active homing head, which required specialized illumination radars. Six such radars were installed on the Project 956 destroyer (on the cruiser Ticonderoga - 4, on the destroyer Arlie Burke - 3), and in general, the Hurricane proved to be quite a reliable weapon. The destroyers installed launchers for eight supersonic Moskit anti-ship missiles, which had a range of 120 km at a low-altitude trajectory and 250 km at an altitude flight profile. At the time of their appearance (and for a very long time after), these missiles were an ultimatum weapon, because the US Navy did not have anti-aircraft systems capable of reliably intercepting low-flying supersonic missiles. In fact, before the RIM-162 ESSM missiles were put into service in 2004, only the means of electronic warfare could repel the attack of the Mosquitoes. The only (but very significant) drawback of "Mosquitoes" was the relatively small range of use, which ensured the destruction of enemy strike groups from the position of tracking them, but did not make it possible to approach the aircraft carrier group after the start of the war. The leadership of the Russian Navy understood that in the conditions of the dominance of enemy aviation, issuing a control center for the use of Mosquitoes even at 120 km would become a problem and tried to solve it by placing over-the-horizon target designation systems on Project 956 destroyers. Accordingly, the Most complex was installed on the ships, which included a KRS-27 passive radar, an electronic reconnaissance station and an information exchange system that allows receiving external target designation, as well as the Mineral complex, which included not only a passive and an active radar channel, able (under certain conditions) to detect surface targets over the horizon.
Of course, such an abundance of anti-ship, anti-aircraft and "anti-personnel" weapons did not leave room for any serious anti-submarine equipment. On the destroyers of Project 956, the Platina-S GAS (from the sixth corps - Platina-MS) was installed, the only advantage of which was its compactness - in normal hydrological conditions, in theory, it could detect a submarine 10-15 km away from itself, but the distance guaranteed detection did not exceed 1-2 km, but in practice there were more than once situations when the boat was visually observed from the destroyer, but the GAS did not hear it. Four torpedo tubes and RBU were the ship's self-defense weapons.
Usually, our ships are reproached for the lack of a normal CIUS, which could consolidate information from the means of lighting the situation and provide target distribution between the means of destruction. On the Project 956 destroyers, these functions were performed by the Sapfir-U BIUS. Unfortunately, the author does not have any information about the capabilities of domestic CIUS and is unable to compare them with the American "Aegis", but according to Yu. Romanov, who commanded the destroyer "Boevoy" in 1989-1991:
"The tasks of the combat information control system on the EM 956 are performed by the automated computing-solving system (modernized tablet)" Sapfir-U ", which deals with the issues of mutual information linking. Sapfir-U receives information about the air situation from the Fregat radar, about the surface situation from two Vaigach MR-212 navigation radars with three antenna posts and one Volga navigation radar. CIUS, as it should be, is connected with the OMS (computer systems) AK-130 and AK-630, as well as KMSUO 3R-90 with the ASPOI of the "Uragan" air defense missile system. "Sapfir-U" fully ensured the fulfillment of the destroyer's tasks. Of course, the BIUS of destroyers differed from the larger-scale tasks of the BIUS of anti-submarine and aircraft-carrying ships: "Root" - Project 1134A, "Lesorub" - Project 1155, or "Alley" and "Alley-2K" of Project 1143 (I name those that I studied and worked on). But there the tasks of the ships are completely different. As the commander of the destroyer pr. 956, Sapfir-U suited me quite well."
Separately, I would like to note the living conditions of the crew: in addition to several showers on the destroyers of Project 956, there was also a sauna, and in addition, a library, a cinema room and even a prefabricated pool. The living and working areas of the vessel are equipped with an air conditioning system. In this respect, the Project 956 destroyers have made a giant step forward compared to the artillery ships of this class of the USSR Navy.
In total, the Russian Navy received 17 ships of this type, and three of them entered service after the collapse of the USSR. The following can be said about them - in general, and taking into account the construction of the BOD project 1155, this was a completely adequate response to the American "Spruence", which was laid in the United States in the period from 1970-1979 and entered the fleet from 1975 to 1983. But then the Americans moved on to the construction of much more advanced destroyers of the Arleigh Burke type, the huge advantage of which was their versatility and vertical launch installations, which allow varying the ammunition load according to the requirements of the task at hand. Despite some (and very serious) shortcomings, "Arlie Burke" in terms of the aggregate of characteristics significantly surpassed the Project 956 destroyers. The first American destroyer of the new (and, let's not be afraid of this word, revolutionary type) was laid down in 1985, but the USSR did not have time to give an adequate answer, continuing to lay the ships of Project 956 until 1988.
Despite the fact that Project 956 destroyers were not the best ships of their class in the world, they still remained extremely dangerous naval fighters, and, taking into account possible upgrades, would not lose their relevance today. However, this type of ships was "killed" even before the lead destroyer "Sovremenny" took shape on the slipway. The destroyers of Project 956 were destroyed by a boiler and turbine power plant (KTU).
The fact is that on our large anti-submarine ships, unpretentious and very reliable gas turbines (GEM) were used everywhere. Initially, they wanted to install them on new destroyers, but a number of reasons arose that prevented this.
Firstly, the USSR was deploying the largest shipbuilding programs and the main supplier of gas turbines - the Southern Turbine Works - could not cope with the abundance of orders. Secondly, the steam turbine production of the Kirovsky plant (Leningrad) would be doomed to downtime. Thirdly, fuel oil or even crude oil, on which KTU could operate, cost the country cheaper than diesel fuel. And besides, as it was then believed, on the way was the creation of a KTU with once-through boilers with extremely high performance.
In principle, everything could have worked out, but summed up a nuance: the new boilers turned out to be extremely demanding on the quality of feed water, incl. on oxygen content, but the designers were unable to ensure the efficient operation of the water treatment plant. As a result, the boilers of the Project 956 destroyers quickly went out of order and the ships, which in any other respect were formidable fighters, were "tied" to the berth walls.
As we said above, as of December 1, 2015, we had eight ships of this class. In the Northern Fleet, there were "Thundering" and "Admiral Ushakov" - in 2016, a scrappage tender from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was announced for the "Thundering". As for Ushakov, in the same 2016 and earlier, according to RIA Novosti, he repeatedly took part in various kinds of exercises, and fortunately, it seemed that he was not going to "retire". But attention is drawn to the fact that all the exercises with the involvement of "Admiral Ushakov" were carried out in the water area of the Barents Sea. That is, despite the huge need for warships capable of serving off the coast of Syria, it was not considered possible to send the last northern destroyer of Project 956 there, which speaks of the unreliability of its power plant.
The "Restless" and "Persistent" served in the Baltic, and the first one in December 2016 was docked to turn into a museum ship. "Persistent" today is the flagship of the Baltic Fleet, but it is, in fact, limitedly fit for battle, perhaps even less combat-ready than "Admiral Ushakov". Since 2013, the ship has been undergoing repairs - this does not prevent it from occasionally participating in fleet activities, but the last time the destroyer left the Baltic Sea was in 1997 (at the IDEX-1997 exhibition in Abu Dhabi).
The remaining four destroyers of Project 956 were in 2015 in the Pacific Fleet. Since 2010, the "Boevoy" has been in a sludge in the Abrek Bay and, obviously, will only leave for disposal. "Fearless" was put into the reserve of the 2nd category back in 1999. Officially - for repairs, but in fact it is already clear that he will never wait for this repair. "Burny" has been under repair since 2005 at Dalzavod; as of 2017, the top ranks of the fleet cannot decide whether to continue this "repair" or announce the mothballing of the ship. It is quite obvious that all three of the above ships will never return to the ranks of the Russian Navy.
The Bystry destroyer is a different matter.
This ship regularly participates in fleet exercises and periodically achieves high results: for example, in 2013, the ship turned out to be the best in the championship among ships of the 1st and 2nd ranks of the Russian Navy. In 2015-2016, he took part in Russian-Chinese exercises, went to the Indian Ocean, visited Vietnam and Indonesia, as well as (inaccurately) India. Probably, "Bystry" is currently the only Project 956 destroyer capable of performing combat missions without restrictions (or with minimal restrictions).
Large anti-submarine ships of project 1155 - 8 units.
Standard displacement - 6 945 t, speed - 30 knots, armament: 2 * 4 PLUR "Rastrub-B", 8 * 8 PU SAM "Dagger", 2 100-mm AK-100, 4 * 6 30-mm AK-630, 2 * 4 533 mm TA, 2 RBU-6000, 2 Ka-27 helicopters and a hangar for them.
The history of the creation of these ships began with the fact that the leadership of the Russian Navy wished to relieve the BOD of project 1135 "Vigilant" (they became patrol ships only in 1977)
from two main disadvantages inherent in them. The fact is that the "Vigilant" did not have a hangar and a helipad, and, in the fair opinion of the sailors, the anti-submarine ship simply had to carry a helicopter. The second problem was that the ships of Project 1135 carried very powerful and long-range anti-submarine weapons - PLUR "Blizzard" with a range of missile-torpedoes 50 km, (later - "Rastrub-B"), but did not have a sonar complex capable of detecting enemy submarines at such distances.
Initially, it was assumed that the "improved 1135" with a hangar for a helicopter and a modern GAS could be created in a displacement of up to 4,000 tons. "Spruance" led to a certain increase in displacement, the replacement of the original "Wasp" air defense system for the newest at that time "Dagger" and so on.
In total, a dozen Project 1155 ships were built in the USSR, and as of December 1, 2015, we had eight BODs of this type - four each for the Northern and Pacific fleets. Of these, six ships of Project 1135 are actively serving in the fleet today - Severomorsk, Admiral Levchenko and Vice-Admiral Kulakov in the north and Admiral Pantelev, Admiral Tributs and Admiral Vinogradov - on Far East. All of the above ships are operated extremely intensively, showing the Russian flag in all the oceans of the planet. Another BOD of the Pacific Fleet, Marshal Shaposhnikov, has been under repair at Dalzavod since 2016, during which the radio-electronic equipment is also being upgraded and the Uranium anti-ship missile system is being installed. There is no doubt that the ship will return to service, the only question is when exactly this will happen: on February 16, 2018, there was a fire in one of its superstructures. However, in terms of the tone of the media coverage of the incident, the fire did not cause much damage.
And here is the eighth ship of this type - BOD "Admiral Kharlamov"
most likely, he will not be able to return to the domestic fleet. Since 2004, the ship has been in technical reserve, but the problem is that during the repair it needs to replace the engines, which today are simply nowhere to be found. Today this ship, apparently, is fully technically sound (except for the power plant) and serves as a stationary training ship.
Project 1155.1 large anti-submarine ship "Admiral Chabanenko" - 1 unit.
Standard displacement - 7 640 t, speed - 30 knots, armament: 2 * 4 anti-ship missiles "Moskit-M", 8 * 8 anti-ship missiles "Dagger", 2 "Dagger" air defense systems, 1 * 2 130-mm AK-130, 2 * 4 PU PLUR "Waterfall", 2 PU RKPTZ "Udav-1" (RBU-12000), 2 Ka-27 helicopters, hangar.
In principle, the construction of Project 956 destroyers and Project 1155 BODs led to the fact that two ships of these types would be at least equivalent to two Spruence destroyers operating in pairs. Indeed, in terms of strike weapons, the Spruyens carried nothing at first, and then 8 Harpoon anti-ship missiles, but even in this case, a volley of 8 Mosquitoes was more dangerous than 16 Harpoons. However, in all fairness, it should be said that in a duel situation it would have been extremely difficult for the Soviet unit to repel the attack of 16 Harpoons. In the anti-submarine part, the approximate parity - the very powerful Polynom + 8 long-range Rastrub-B PLURs with a dozen 533-mm torpedoes looked more solid than the Spruence GAS and the combination of ASROK PLUR and 324-mm torpedoes. But the situation was leveled by the fact that a pair of Spruens had 2 high-quality GASs, while Platina-M of the Project 956 destroyer no one would have dared to call good, in addition, the two Spruens had hangars for 4 helicopters together, against 2 helicopters and a helipad of Soviet ships. With the support of the airborne assault, two AK-130 installations, due to their firing performance, would have an advantage over the four 127-mm guns of the Americans, even without taking into account the "hundredths" of the BOD, besides, 130-mm Soviet artillery systems were long-range. On the other hand, after the installation of the UVP on the Spruyens, they were able to carry the Tomahawk missile - the Project 1155 BOD and the Project 956 destroyers did not have anything like it. The air defense of the Soviet compound was much more powerful, since the two Uragan air defense systems with 48 missiles and 64 Dagger air defense systems were obviously superior to the total 48 Sea Sparrow air defense systems on two Spruens. Subsequently, however, the "Spruyens" received a vertical launch system, which increased their ammunition capacity to 61 cells for missiles and PLURs, and here the "Spruyens" took the lead in terms of ammunition, but the Soviet air defense systems still surpassed them qualitatively. The situation could be corrected by long-range missiles "Standard", but "Spruence" did not have guidance systems for these missiles, so they were not placed on these destroyers. Eight "metal cutters" AK-630 also surpassed 4 "Phalanxes".
But all this was good in theory, but in practice, it was impossible to form "pairs" from the Project 1166 BOD and the Project 956 destroyer - the combat mission had to be solved with those ships that are currently at hand. The "two-ship" system, despite the theoretical advantages, did not justify itself, and without the universalization of launchers, it was also impossible to create a universal ship of moderate displacement. Therefore, an attempt was made, if not to create a universal ship, then at least to eliminate the main claims to the composition of the weapons of the BOD project 1155.
At a meeting with the commander-in-chief of the USSR Navy, Admiral S. G. Gorshkov, the main complaints about the results of the operation of these BODs were the lack of anti-ship weapons (although theoretically, "Rastrub-B" could be used against surface targets), the weakness of anti-aircraft weapons and artillery. As a result, Project 1155.1 was created, which received a twin AK-130 instead of two "hundred parts", and the same number of Moskit launchers instead of the Rastrub-B launchers. The torpedo tubes were adapted for the use of the "Waterfall" missile-torpedoes, so the ship did not lose its "long arm" in the fight against enemy submarines. In addition, the new BOD received a more advanced Zvezda-2. The old RBU-6000 were replaced with the newest at that time "Boas" (RBU-12000). The anti-aircraft armament was also strengthened - the place of the four AK-630 metal cutters was taken by two ZRAK "Dagger".
In general, the designers of the USSR turned out to be a fairly successful ship, much more versatile than the BOD of Project 1155 or the destroyer of Project 956. But its Achilles' heel was the absence of medium and long-range air defense systems, without which the capabilities of its air defense were severely limited. We can say that the BOD of Project 1155.1 (and we are talking about it) was a transitional type to ships armed with UVP for anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles, and much more advanced than the BOD of Project 1155. In total, they managed to lay two such ships, order for more one was canceled, and only the lead Admiral Chabanenko was completed. The ship is in service in the north, but is currently under repair, from which, according to some reports, no earlier than 2020.
So, what do we have "in the bottom line"? As of December 1, 2015, we had 19 destroyer-class ships (large anti-submarine ship), of which Kerch, five Project 956 destroyers and one Project 1155 BOD were not operational and would never return to service. Of the remaining 12 ships, one (Smetlivy) has already served all a reasonable time, two destroyers of Project 956 have limited combat capability associated with a problematic power plant (Admiral Ushakov and the flagship of the BF "Persistent"), two BODs of Project 1155 and 1155.1 are in long renovation.
Thus, today we have as many as 8 destroyer-class ships “ready for marching and battle”, including the ancient Smetlivy, six Project 1155 BODs and the Pacific Fast, plus 2 more “limited-fit” Project 956 destroyers. Four fleets, please note.
This, of course, is regrettably small, especially since all these ships are equipped with "middle-aged" equipment and weapons, which were considered modern in the 80s of the last century. Age, of course, gradually takes its toll: all the destroyers of Project 956 and the BOD entered service in the period 1981-1993 and, apart from the "Admiral Chabanenko", transferred to the fleet in 1999, they are now 25 to 37 years old.
Undoubtedly, in the next decade, "Smetlivy" will "retire", as well as, very likely, all the destroyers of Project 956 - the unsuccessful KTU will "finish off" them completely, in general, there is nothing to change it, and there is there are no expensive modernization of older ships. Most likely, the oldest of the BOD 1155 that is still alive today - "Vice-Admiral Kulakov", will also be scrapped, since in 2021 he will "knock" forty years old. Accordingly, out of today's dozen more or less combat-ready ships by the end of the 20s of this century, only 6 BODs of Project 1155 will remain in the fleet, whose age will be from 39 to 45 years by 2030, and BODs of Project 1155.1 Admiral Chabanenko, which will be 31 years old. That is, in fact, by 2030, our destroyers, with the exception of the only BOD of project 1155.1, will turn into rarities like "Sharp-witted" today.
"What is coming to replace them?" - the reader will ask: "The author has always described the current state of the fleet and the prospects for its construction, and here is the end of the article, but there is still not a word about new ships."
With new ships, everything is simple. They are not here. At all.
The widely advertised destroyers of the Leader project have already grown to 17,000 tonnes of displacement. In essence, these are missile cruisers, and the author of this article will be happy if we have "enough gunpowder" to replace the Project 1164 Atlant RRC and two TAKR 1144 Orlan in a one-to-one ratio (although this is hard to believe). But in any case, "Leaders" have nothing to do with the class of destroyers. There is still some hope that displacement will be added to frigates of the "Admiral Gorshkov" class, and they will eventually become full-fledged destroyers, but … so far there is no talk of laying such ships at all - even their project does not exist yet.
Well, we will talk more about this in the next article dedicated to the frigates of the Russian Federation …
Previous articles in the series:
Russian military fleet. A sad look into the future
Russian military fleet. A sad look into the future (part 2)
Russian military fleet. A sad look into the future. Part 3. "Ash" and "Husky"
Russian military fleet. A sad look into the future. Part 4. "Halibut" and "Lada"
Russian military fleet. A sad look into the future. Part 5. Special purpose boats and this strange UNMISP
Russian military fleet. A sad look into the future. Part 6. Corvettes
Russian military fleet. A sad look into the future. Part 7. Small missile
Russian military fleet. A sad look into the future: mine-sweeping disaster
