The large landing ship "Konstantin Olshansky" belongs to the family of Project 775 landing ships. At the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, it became clear to the fleet command that the Union landing fleet no longer met its requirements. Therefore, in 1968, at the direction of the Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy, Admiral Sergei Georgievich Gorshkov, tactical and technical requirements for the design of a new SDK (medium landing ship) of project 775 were developed. On paper, the ship was retrained from a medium to a large landing ship, but formally remained "medium" until 1977.
The design itself was carried out in fraternal Poland. The chief designer was the Polish shipbuilder O. Vysotsky, the chief observer from the USSR Navy was Captain 1st Rank B. M. Molozhozhnikov (later civilian specialist M. I. Rybnikov replaced him in this position of observer), and engineer L. V. Lugovin.
The very construction of the ships, which now practically form the core of the amphibious fleet, was also carried out in the Polish Gdansk at the Stocznia Polnocna shipyard (translated as "Severnaya Verf"). This shipyard was founded in 1945, and since the 50s it has been building mainly warships for the fleets of Poland, the GDR, the USSR, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Now the shipyard was bought by Remontowa S. A. and it is called Remontowa Shipbuilding. By the way, the predecessors of "Konstantin Olshansky", the ships of the project 770, 771 and 773 were also built at this Polish shipyard.
The first lead ship of the project 775 series SDK-47 was built in 1974. Improvements were made to the project as construction progressed, so the first original series of 12 ships was completed by 1978. According to NATO classification, these landing craft received the Polish name "Ropucha" ("Toad").
After the modification of the 775 project, ships of the 775 II project with the corresponding NATO name Ropucha II, which were built in Gdansk until 1992, went into series. This series was different from the ancestor of the other radar.
It was also planned to develop the project in the form of the third series of the 775 project specifically for the T-80 tanks, but, in fact, these were already somewhat different ships, so they passed under the project number 778. However, the collapse of the Soviet Union put an end to both the project and throughout the series. The lead ship of the 778th project, which, according to some sources, was to be named in honor of Vice Admiral Ivan Ivanovich Gren, was even laid down. But with the same speed with which "decommunization" was turning into industrial degradation, the already laid ship was cut into metal by 1993.
All large landing ships built in Gdansk were intended only for the Soviet fleet. The only exception was one BDK No. 139, transferred to the then friendly People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1979, when our naval forces were based with access to the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden in order to protect the newly-made "friends". True, there was little sense from the "royal" gift. In 1986, a bloody civil war broke out.
BDK of the first and second series of the project 775 are multi-deck flat-bottomed landing ships of the ocean zone. These ships are characterized by a cargo (tank) deck that runs along the entire length, thanks to which the loading and unloading of armored vehicles could be carried out both from the stern and from the bow. A similar design is called Ro-Ro (or ro-ro, in civil shipbuilding these are cargo-passenger ships, more often ferries). The silhouette of a ship with a forecastle and a developed stern superstructure is more than recognizable.
These ships are intended for transporting amphibious forces and disembarking them both on equipped and unequipped coast. The BDK is also capable of providing fire support to the landing force. The ship can be used both for the evacuation of the population and for the delivery of humanitarian supplies. By the way, these ships had to carry out the last actions in practice, but more on that later. As a rule, large landing ships operate as part of a shipborne assault group, but it was understood that they were able to perform their functions independently without cover ships.
BDK 775 and 775 II are designed for use in one of the following loading options: either 150 airborne troops and 10 main battle tanks of the T-55 type with crews of 40 people; or 12 amphibious tanks PT-76 with crews of 36 people; or a unit consisting of three main battle tanks of the T-55 type with crews of 12 people, three 120-mm mortars with crews, three combat vehicles with crews (command and staff vehicles), four ZIL-130 vehicles, four GAZ-66 vehicles and one passenger SUV GAZ-69. The ship provides space for up to 190 troops (according to other sources, the number can be increased to 225 people, taking into account the hold). The ship is capable of carrying 650 tons of cargo over a distance of up to 4,700 miles.
According to the testimony of some "visitors" of the ship, the interior is more than modest. So, the height of the ceiling (lining the inner side of the ceiling of living quarters) is no more than 2 meters, and in fact, taking into account the saving of space between the beds, located in three tiers, the paratrooper is always packed, like a cartridge in a clip. And such transportation can take much longer than one week.
The tank hold had the following characteristics: length 95 m, width of the bow 6, 5 m, width of the stern 4.5 m, height along the center plane 4 m.
Directly BDK "Konstantin Olshansky" was born under the license plate BDK-56. This ship, by the way, is a kind of elder brother of two other landing ships currently operating on the Black Sea - "Caesar Kunikov" and "Novocherkassk".
The main performance characteristics of the large landing craft "Konstantin Olshansky":
Standard displacement - 2768 tons, full displacement - 4012 tons.
Length 112.5 meters, width 15.01 meters, draft 4, 26 meters.
Full speed - 18 knots (power plant - 2 diesel engines "Zgoda-Sulzer" 16ZVB40 / 48, 9600 hp each).
Cruising range 3500 miles at 16 knots or 6000 miles at 12 knots;
Autonomy is about 30 days.
The total number of the crew is 98 people.
And now about the armament of the BDK. As artillery weapons "Konstantin Olshansky" carries two twin 57-mm AK-725 mounts. One is installed in front of the wheelhouse, the second is at the stern. Art installations, as they say, with history. They were developed back in the 60s, and entered service in 1964. The production of installations was stopped in 1988, so the last three ships of the 775th project were armed with more modern AK-176 and two 30-mm six-barreled AK-630M installations.
For fire support of the landing, the ship was equipped with two A-215 Grad-M multiple launch rocket systems of 122 mm caliber. The 40-barreled A-215 system is capable of throwing unpleasant surprises in the form of 9M22U high-explosive fragmentation missiles at a range of up to 20 thousand meters.
Also, to enhance the security of the BDK, the mandatory set, in addition to stationary weapons, included Strela-3 MANPADS.
Thus, the BDK-56 entered service with the Red Banner Black Sea Fleet of the USSR in 1985. In 1991, the numbered ship received its modern name - "Konstantin Olshansky". Konstantin Fedorovich himself, after whom the ship was named, was born in 1915 in the Kharkov province and before the war was an ordinary car mechanic. After being drafted into the ranks of the Red Army, he ended up in the Black Sea Fleet. Olshansky took part in the defense of Sevastopol and Yeisk, liberated Taganrog and Mariupol.
In 1944, commanding a tiny detachment of 68 paratroopers, Olshansky captured the port of Nikolaev and, defending the object for two days, pulled together significant forces of the Nazis and thereby greatly facilitated the task of the advancing Soviet troops. During the operation, the detachment of Konstantin Fedorovich exterminated up to 700 Nazis. Apart from the fact that the detachment's sappers preserved most of the port infrastructure, which the Nazis intended to blow up.
Olshansky died in that battle. He was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Konstantin Fedorovich was buried in a mass grave in Nikolaev in the park of 68 paratroopers. As far as I know, the hands of the Kiev junta have not yet reached it.
However, in the same 1991, the so-called Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine allegedly came into force. This marked the massive destruction of Soviet people's property, in this case the Black Sea Fleet, from infrastructure to ships themselves. The idea itself was not even able to penetrate into the greedy cranials, why this or that ship is needed, what tasks it will solve, etc. By the way, it was then that the purely doctrinaire "foundation" of the Ukrainian fleet was laid, which brought it to its present state. Mriyas about "spaceships plying the Bolshoi Theater" have replaced the harsh reality.
The new authorities of Ukraine laid claim to all the ships of the fleet, as in the well-known joke "a tse for ogirki". Therefore, provocations and open attempts to seize by force have become commonplace for the Konstantin Olshansky large landing craft.
