The first postwar destroyers of the Ukrainian Navy
Uk DD Project 19.PNG
Project 19 Destroyer Krasnyi Sevastopol Class
The People’s Ukrainian Defence Commissariat in 1946 was looking at every aspect of the Ukraine’s defence needs and was trying to rebuild the Army, Air Force and Navy while the devastated nation was also being rebuilt and reformed. The need for new destroyers was not pressing but Soviet ambitions in the area were growing and the appearance of a dozen former Italian vessels ceded after the war to the USSR in the Black Sea was disturbing as was the appearance of new Turkish vessels purchased from Britain. The Romanian destroyers Marasti, Maraesesti, Regle Ferdinand and Regina Marina were taken over in 1945 but the first pair were elderly Great War era ships and returned soon after but the remaining two were 1930s Italian built ships and were retained until 1955. They were rearmed with four single 130mm M1937 mounts and four twin 37mm M1947 mounts and renamed Letuchy and Lovky. Together with the Likhoi, Lyogky, Reski, Druzhny and Sovershenny they formed the Destroyer Division.
In 1947 the Naval Scientific and Special Design Committee was ordered to begin designing a new class of destroyers for production during the Sixth Fifth Year Plan. The Central Scientific Institute for Shipbuilding (ChSNII) at Sevastopol formed a design group for Project 19 under P.G. Gergiev. The armament was to be totally new and modern and would consist of two twin 130mm M1952 automatic dual-purpose mounts, one 57mm M1950 quadruple automatic AA mount (later revised to three twin mounts), two quintuple 533mm torpedo tube mounts, one BKB-1 depth-charge rack and two BKB-4 depth-charge launchers and one MBU-2 anti-submarine rocket launcher. Speed would be 34 knots with 72,500hp and range 4,000nm at 18kts. Design took a long time and the final design was not completed until March 1950 and by then the Politburo had authorised twelve boats; four each from the Ukraina Yard, the Kommuna Yard and the Sevastopol Navy Yard. They were named Krasnyi Militsioner Ukrainy, Zhilkooperasiya Ukrainy, Krasnyi Sevastopol, Sevastopol Proletarii, Proletarii Odesshchiny, Krasnyi Kiev, Kharkov Kommuna, Kharkovskii Proletarii, Kharkov Komsomolets, Kiev Komsomolets, Krivoy Rog and Krasnyi Kherson. Laying down of the Project 19 vessels began in March 1951 and launching took place 12-15 months later and completion was during 1953 to 1955. All twelve formed the 1st and 2nd Destroyer Divisions (Odessa and Sevastopol respectively) and remained in service until 1973-79. Modernisation was undertaken 1967-70.
Uk DDG Project 25.PNG
Project 25 (Project 19 SAM conversion)
Demands for an aerial defence screen for the Navy led to development of the RM-3RI SAM system by SKB-3 at Kharkov during 1964-67. In 1966 four Project 19 boats were selected for conversion, each would loose the after 130mm mount and all 57mm guns and a single RM-4RI Shtorm (SAU-N-2 ‘Gambit’) launcher and associated ‘Park Bowl’ radar. Two twin 30mm light AA mounts were also added. Conversion work was carried out during 1968-71 and they remained in service (two for each destroyer division) until 1979. The four boats converted were Krasnyi Kiev, Krivoy Rog, Proletarii Odesshchiny and Krasnyi Sevastopol.
[Pics are as attachments for temp, hopefully by next weekend I'll have broadband and be able to actually load stuff into photobucket within an average lifetime!]
Thank you Kim for the crest
