The appearance of what at first seemed to be universal means of combating mines ahead of the course of the ship required the creation of very expensive anti-mine ships of a new class - minesweepers and minesweepers and their latest anti-mine weapons, which are based on reusable self-propelled underwater vehicles (PA). In addition, this led to the creation and introduction of special channels into bottom mines, causing the mines to explode from the physical fields of the underwater vehicle and destroy it, which turns out to be economically beneficial, given the higher cost of UA compared to a bottom mine and the incomparable numerical ratio of bottom mines and UA .
In addition, by the beginning of the 1980s, the combat capabilities of the mine had increased many times over, including the depth of setting, the multi-channel and multiple actions of fuses, the difficulty of detection (dielectric materials of the hulls, silt, etc.), the secrecy of setting (submarines, aviation). Particularly dangerous in this regard was the anchor mine adopted by the United States in 1976 with a laying depth of 500-1000 m, which poses a serious danger to submarines.
Scheme of laying a mine (container with a torpedo) Mark 60 CAPTOR
Therefore, in the late 1970s - early 1980s, there was an urgent need to create a new generation of mine-sweeping ships with the widest use of automation and remote control, with improved habitability and increased safety of navigation. More attention has been paid to environmental issues.
The first studies on the creation of a new sea minesweeper were carried out in the 1970s. The design of the ship began with the Western Design Bureau (chief designers N.P. Pegov and V.S. Sergeev) in 1972, then, according to one of the options, the installation of a minesweeper helicopter on the ship was worked out. However, even without this, the displacement of the ship increased to 1150 tons, and power plant remained the same for project 266M. At the same time, a low-speed power plant and a bow thruster were additionally installed.
Project 12660 sea minesweeper
The armament of this ship includes a new anti-mine complex for searching for bottom, bottom and anchor mines along the course, as well as contact and non-contact trawls. The most advanced mine-sweeping armament was installed on the minesweeper: a mine destruction complex with a self-propelled homing anti-mine projectile-torpedo "Cobra" and a self-propelled anti-mine projectile - a torpedo for cutting minreps "Gyurza" according to the target designation of the ship (both projectiles were created at the Central Research Institute "Gidropribor"), self-propelled remote-controlled searcher-destroyer "Ketmen", searcher-destroyer "Halibut", electromagnetic and acoustic trawls, mine detection sonar "Kabarga" and others. fire control "Vympel" and MANPADS "Strela-3".
The deep-sea sonar towed finder-destroyer of bottom mines "Halibut" began to be developed at the Central Research Institute "Gidropribor" in 1976. In comparison with the Luch-1 searcher, in the new product, the detected objects should not only be marked with markers, but, if necessary, destroyed directly in the process of towing. The GAS for the seeker was created at the Morfizpribor Central Research Institute. Soon, work on the entire Halibut system was transferred to the Ural branch of the Central Research Institute Gidropribor (Chief Designers Kh.Kh. Davletgildeev and V.I. K.E.Voroshilova. The seeker-destroyer was tested and in 1985 was adopted by the Navy, but due to shortcomings in the sonar system in mass production did not enter.
The development of the new GASM "Kakarga", modifications of which were installed on the raid and sea minesweepers of the Navy, was completed in 1990 by the Research Institute "Breeze". However, in terms of the level of secondary information processing and interaction with anti-mine weapons, it practically does not differ from previous models of stations.
At the same time, after the appearance in the USSR Navy of effective ship-based mine detection stations of the "Kabarga" type in the 1980s. work continues on the creation of self-propelled mine-destroyers. In 1989, the second-generation self-propelled remote-controlled seeker-destroyer of the second generation STIU-2 "Ketmen" was adopted by the fleet, working on target designation of the ship's sonar mine detection station at depths of up to 100 m. It was developed by the Ural branch of the Central Research Institute "Gidropribor" (Chief Designer A .A.Kazin).
STIU-2 provides search at a speed of up to 3 knots and the destruction of bottom and anchor mines ahead of the course of the minesweeper. A charge was placed on the detected mine (there are two of them on the apparatus with an explosive charge of 130 kg each), and after the SIU retreated to a safe distance, the mine was detonated.
Model of the self-propelled remote-controlled searcher-destroyer STIU-2 "Ketmen"
The construction of Project 12660 ships has been carried out at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard since 1983. The ships were built from low-magnetic steel to combat deep-water anti-submarine mines of the Captor type and to provide mine support for ships and transports in remote sea areas. The lead minesweeper Zheleznyakov was built at the Sredne-Nevsky Shipyard in 1988. The dimensions of the ship required, when removed from the slipway in the workshop, to increase the opening of the workshop gates, and the trigger device withstood the maximum load at the time of descent. Deliveries of new equipment were late, which complicated and delayed the timing of the installation work.
The two ships "Zheleznyakov" and "V. Gumanenko" that entered service significantly outperform mine action by several times. The construction of the hull of the third ship was discontinued due to lack of funding.
The creation of Project 12660 ships is a whole era in Soviet shipbuilding. They became the first sea minesweepers of the USSR Navy, capable of conducting mine action ahead of the course and combating modern deep-sea mines. The experience gained during their creation and use is invaluable in the further design of mine defense ships.
According to the MTSC shipbuilding program of project 12660 (known in NATO as Gorya) it was supposed to build much more than it was possible. Already in the process of testing, it became clear that the project was very complex and the ship turned out to be large. And besides, the Soviet Union collapsed, other times came, and funding for the defense sector dropped sharply. Therefore, it was decided to build new sea minesweepers in the hull of the well-proven MTShch project 266M, but with new means of searching for and destroying mines, which should not have been as expensive as the 12660 Rubin project.
Modern approaches to mine action
In recent decades, a significant technological breakthrough has been the creation of minesweepers-searchers. Only the leading maritime powers and countries with a high level of industrial development were able to implement it, mainly due to the implementation of the principle of interstate cooperation.
The modern concept of mine action, known as , is based on the active use of sonar weapons of mine-sweeping ships to search, detect and inspect all immovable underwater mine-like objects found within the given boundaries of water areas.
According to the results of the survey, mine-like objects classified as mines should be applied to electronic card(included in the data bank) and destroyed, and information about foreign objects (wrecks, industrial debris, large stones, noticeable bottom folds, etc.) should also be entered in the data bank to identify acoustic contacts during subsequent search operations in these water areas.
The basis of the anti-mine armament of modern ships of this direction are hydroacoustic mine detection stations, anti-mine remote-controlled vehicles and automated control systems for mine action.
As is known, the leading position in the construction of modern minesweepers and the creation of the main components of their anti-mine weapons is occupied by firms from Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and the USA. In recent years, they have also been joined by firms from Japan, Sweden, Norway, South Korea, building minesweepers-searchers with anti-mine weapons supplied in whole or in part by firms of the above countries. Most states are not able to build such ships and are forced to purchase them from exporting countries.
In an effort to keep up with the leading maritime powers, in the 1990s, enterprises defense complex Russia prepared proposals for the modernization of anti-mine ships, then, for export to Russian minesweepers of the 10750E and 266ME types, it was proposed to install mine-detecting stations MG-89M, MG-991, MG-992M and MG-993M, self-propelled remote-controlled underwater vehicles for additional search and destruction of mines ( ROV) "Ropan-PM", "Route".
AT advertising materials Western Design Bureau noted that the installation of project 266ME on a ship and the use of a mine detection sonar (Propelled variable depth sonar - PVDS) with a receiving and emitting system located on a self-propelled remote-controlled underwater vehicle (Remotely operated vehicle - ROV), which provides detection, identification and classification of mines far ahead of the ship. The range of the GASM in this case is not limited either by the interference generated by the ship or by the hydrological conditions of the sea. The destruction of mines after detection can be carried out by an apparatus of the same family, which has the function of a mine destroyer.
As specialists from the Central Research Institute Gidropribor noted at one time, the creation and development of mine search and destruction tools will be a priority in the development of mine action weapons. New trends in this direction are seen in the creation of self-propelled sonar mine detection stations with variable depth of immersion of their receiving and emitting antennas, anti-mine disposable projectiles - destroyers, towed mine detection stations as part of unmanned carriers.
In addition, the use of seemingly traditional anti-mine means with the greatest efficiency requires the use modern technologies. The latter was clearly visible during a visit to St. Petersburg by the permanent mine-sweeping unit of the NATO Regional Command "North" at the end of 2004. Almost every ship had perfect means of space communications and navigation.
In addition, all ships in the minesweeper group were equipped with special devices for remote search min. For example, a Belgian minesweeper (displacement 595 tons, length 51.5 m, crew 46 people) had two self-propelled remote-controlled underwater vehicles for searching for mines PAP 104 (operating depth up to 200 m), a mine detection sonar station, another necessary equipment and equipment. He, like the Dutch M857 Makkum, was created by a joint Franco-Belgian-Dutch development.
M857 Makkum
Even the oldest ship that came to the Neva is the Polish minesweeper Czajka (tail number 624, displacement 507 tons, length 58.2 m, crew 49 people) of the Krogulec class (type 206FM), built in 1967 in Gdynia, despite its old age conforming to NATO standards, it had two small submersibles to search for mines of Polish development.
German mine search apparatus Pinguin B3. Demolition charges are fixed under the hull.
The mine engineering minesweeper MIT was developed on the basis of the heavy sneaker T-10 (T-10M) by the design bureau SKB-200 of the plant named after. S. Ordzhonikidze (factory No. 78) in Chelyabinsk on the basis of the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of December 4, 1956 and May 30, 1960. It was intended to make continuous passages in anti-tank minefields during military operations. Prototypes of the minesweeper ("Object 211", "Object 213" and "Object 220") were manufactured in 1958-1961. The minesweeper "Object 211" passed the factory-field tests in 1959-1960. and the minesweepers "Object 213" and "Object 220" - in 1962. In 1963, in connection with the planned cessation of the production of heavy tanks T-10M, further work on the manufacture of three prototypes of MIT for ground-military tests was stopped, and technical documentation was placed in storage.
The minesweeper was a T-10 (T-10M) tank without a turret and weapons, instead of which special equipment was installed. The scheme of the general layout of the machine has also changed, and the crew size has been reduced from four to three people. In the middle part of the hull, instead of the fighting compartment, there was an additional transmission compartment with a completely modified armored roof above it. In front of the hull roof, symmetrically to the longitudinal axis of the machine, a rotating commander's cupola was located on the left, and a non-rotating operator's cupola on the right. The location of the driver was the same as in the base car. In the center of the additional transmission compartment, a reversible winch was installed with a pulling force on a cable of 1640 kgf. The cable was led to the roof of the car and then to the pulley blocks, which provided a tenfold increase in traction. winch with hydraulic system was intended to transfer equipment for trawling into working or transport positions. On both sides of the winch, as well as the hydraulic pump, there were two MPB-54 electric motors with a power of 2 kW each. The hydraulic cylinders of the system were located in the niches of the sides of the hull. Prototypes of a mine engineering minesweeper mainly differed in equipment for sweeping mine-explosive obstacles.
On the minesweeper "Object 211" the equipment for trawling consisted of two knife sections of continuous trawling. This type of trawl belonged to the trawls of the digging action of the passive type. The working elements of the trawl were hard knives that cut through the ground. When trawling, knives were buried in the ground, mines were removed to its surface and taken away to the sides outside the trawled strip. The distance between the knives was 230 mm. The trawl provided the trawling of almost all mines, regardless of their types and responsive drives. The total weight of the minesweeping equipment did not exceed 5400 kg. During the tests, low explosion resistance of the trawl knife sections, the need for high traction force and a strong dependence on soil and climatic conditions were revealed. In the working position of the trawl, it was difficult to make quick turns of the minesweeper, which reduced its maneuverability in combat conditions. The digging trawl showed especially low efficiency when trawling on loose, wet, frozen soil, on concrete and rocky surfaces, in small forests, in soils of variable density, with a highly developed sod cover.
On the minesweeper "Object 213" the main working body was, located in two rows, heavy steel rollers that moved ahead of the machine. The trawl installed on the minesweeper, according to the principle of impact on mines, belonged to the pressure type. The destruction of the body of the mine or the explosion of the mine occurred due to the creation of local pressure on the ground or the surface of the mine with pressure drives by heavy steel rollers. The rollers were made of ordinary steel casting (steel 25L) and had an individual axle suspension to the traction frame. The swivel suspension of the roller with the traction frame provided good copying of uneven terrain by each of the 14 rollers. In this case, the pressure on the mine did not exceed the mass of the roller. The total weight of the minesweeping equipment reached 11,000 kg. The main advantages of the roller trawl were the relatively high reliability of trawling mines with pressure drives, simplicity of design, high speeds minesweeping (up to 15 km / h), significant explosion resistance (up to 14 explosions of mines weighing up to 7 kg).
However, the tests carried out also revealed a number of serious shortcomings, primarily related to the principle of operation of the trawl. This is a large mass of the rink (up to 500 kg), selected from the condition of providing the necessary pressure on the ground and explosion resistance, and therefore the low passability and maneuverability of a minesweeper with a skating rink, especially on loose and wet soils, increased transmission wear, significant fuel consumption compared to with the base machine. In order to maximize the advantages inherent in the methods of trawling identified during testing of prototypes of mine engineering minesweepers "Object 211" and "Object 213", on the experimental minesweeper "Object 220" the equipment for trawling consisted of two knife gauge sections and a single row roller section. The mass of prototype minesweepers, depending on the installed equipment for trawling, ranged from 43.6 to 50.3 tons. The transfer of knife or single-row roller sections from working to traveling position was carried out in 3 seconds.
The time spent on the preparation and installation of the roller trawl was 4.5 hours, the gauge knife trawl - 3 hours. The time for dismantling the equipment for trawling, respectively, was 1 hour 10 minutes. and 35 min. Depending on the installed equipment, a trawling lane width of 3840 mm (knife sections), 3815 mm (roller sections) or two tracks 1445 mm wide was provided. The maximum lifting angle of the machine was 15°. The speed of trawling with a roller trawl is up to 15 km / h. with a knife trawl - 10-12 km / h. The speed of the minesweeper with equipment in the stowed position was up to 30 km / h. The minesweeper was designed taking into account the possibility of overcoming a water barrier along the bottom. It was equipped with PAZ and PPO systems, as well as the R-113 radio station, which were used on the base vehicle.
| Project 254 minesweepers | |
|---|---|
| Sea minesweepers of the project 254 type T-43 T43 class minesweeper Project 254 |
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| Project | |
| Country | |
| Manufacturers |
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| Operators | |
| Years of construction | |
| In service | retired from the fleet |
| Main characteristics | |
| Displacement | 500 t (standard) 569 t (full) |
| Length | 58 m (54 m DWL) |
| Width | 8.5 m (8.4 m DWL) |
| Draft | 2.1 m |
| Booking | homogeneous from shipbuilding steel St.4s (8 mm on the wheelhouse) |
| Engines | 2 diesel engines type 9D or 9D-8, 3 diesel generators |
| Power | 2000 or 2200 hp |
| mover | 2 shafts and 2 propellers |
| Travel speed | 14 knots (maximum) 10 knots (economic) |
| cruising range | 3800 miles (at 10 knots) |
| Autonomy swimming | 7 nights |
| Crew | 65 people (7 officers) |
| Armament | |
| Radar weapons | GAS "Tamir-10" Radar general detection "Reef" Radar state identification "Fakel-MO / MZ" or "Nichrom" (Square Head, High Pole A) |
| Artillery | 2 x 2 37mm V-11 2 x 2 12.7 mm machine guns 2M-1 |
| Missile weapons | degaussing device |
| Anti-submarine weapons | 2 x BMB-1 bombers, 10 BB-1 depth charges, 2 bomb releasers |
| Mine-torpedo armament | 10 min KB-3 or 16 min sample 1908/1939 contact sea trawl MT-1/MT-1P, 2 x non-contact acoustic trawl BAT-2 solenoid electromagnetic trawl TEM-52 chain guard TsOK-1-40 |
| Media at Wikimedia Commons | |
Project 254 minesweepers- sea minesweepers that were in the service of the USSR Navy and the naval forces of various countries. A total of 295 minesweepers of this type were built.
Projects to upgrade minesweepers
During the Great Patriotic War in the USSR Navy, only ships of projects 3, 53, 53-U and 58 survived from minesweepers, which were considered hopelessly outdated at that time. Also in the Red Fleet were raid minesweepers of the 253-L project and boat minesweepers with non-contact trawls. Due to insufficient great efficiency in 1946, work began in the USSR on the creation of new minesweepers of all classes, and the minesweeper variant, effective in the fight against non-contact mines, was considered the preferred option. The tasks for the new generation of sea minesweepers were considered to be the determination of the boundaries of minefields and their destruction, reconnaissance and control trawling, laying fairways in minefields, escorting ships and vessels behind the trawls, as well as participating in the setting of minefields.
The first post-war sea minesweeper was the Project 254 ship, which was originally designed as a basic minesweeper. The development of the vessel has been carried out since 1943 in three Central Design Bureaus under the numbers 51, 17 and 50. Only in 1946, TTZ for its design received TsKB-363, G. M. Verakso was appointed chief designer, captain 1st rank V. became the main observer from the Navy. S. Avdeev. In the same year, the project was completed, which provided for a flow-positional method for assembling the hull from saturated sections and blocks using welding. It was the first ship of the Russian Navy, made completely welded.
Ship Description
General view and structure
The main material of the hull was shipbuilding steel grade St.4s; low-magnetic steel grade EI-269 was also used for overhead sheets for compasses. The wheelhouse was made of homogeneous armor 8 mm thick. Throughout the body was recruited according to the longitudinal recruitment system. The ships also had a second bottom, a stem with ice reinforcement, side keels as passive type stabilizers. The hull was divided into ten watertight compartments. The standard displacement reached 500 tons, and the total displacement - 569 tons.
Equipment
In order to protect against non-contact mines, a demagnetizing device of three windings was installed on the minesweeper - the main, course horizontal and course buttocks, sectioned to provide the necessary adjustment. It protected against magnetic and induction mines, and also provided compensation for all components of the ship's magnetic field within ± 2000 nT (± 20 mOe) at all points of the horizontal plane at a depth of up to 6 m from the waterline. To detect anchor mines, the ship had a Tamir-10 active GAS.
Armament
The ship was armed with two twin 37 mm V-11 open-type gun mounts: one was on the forecastle, the second was on the superstructure in the stern. He also had two twin 12.7 mm 2M-1 machine gun mounts, two BMB-1 bombers and two bomb releasers. To protect against enemy ships and submarines, the ship could lay mines: 10 mines of the KB-3 type or 16 mines of the 1908/1939 model using mine routes and ramps. The anti-mine weapons included several trawls: contact type MT-1, non-contact acoustic BAT-2 (two pieces) and a solenoid electromagnetic TEM-52, as well as a chain guard TsOK-1-40. The ship was equipped with typical radio equipment for that time.
Driving performance
The main power plant consisted of two diesel engines of the 9D type with a power of 2 thousand hp. and gave speeds up to 14 knots. When trawling MT-1, the speed decreased to 8.3 knots. The economic course was at 10 knots and gave a cruising range of up to 3800 miles.
Modifications
Three modifications were built: 254-K, 254-M and 254-A. These ships were additionally equipped with artillery mounts ZiF-17 (class A), 2M-3 (class M), as well as trawls M-2 (class K), MT-1D and TEM-52M (both classes M and A). Ships of classes 254-M and 254-A were slightly larger in size. The Lin, Lin-M, Tamir-11 and Rym-K radars served as additional radio-technical weapons.
Construction
The ships were built at the Sredne-Nevsky shipbuilding plant in Leningrad (No. 363) and in Kerch at the Zaliv shipbuilding plant (No. 532). The lead ship T-43 was handed over to the fleet in 1948 in Leningrad. A total of 295 ships were built until the early 1960s. It was the most massive minesweeper in the world. In the west, she was given the code designation T-43 class (after the name of the lead ship). Most were exported, but mostly they were ships of the 254-K type: two each went to Algeria, Albania, China, Iraq and Syria, three went to Bulgaria, six to Indonesia and 7 to Egypt (of which five ships are in service and to this day: "Gharbeya", "Daqahleya", "Bahareya", "Sinai", "Assuit"). Another 12 ships were built in Poland, and 40 ships were built under the same license in China.
Our days
Soon the ships began to gradually withdraw from the fleets. Many of them were converted into diving or rescue ships, and then some turned into floating barracks or training ships (20 still became air surveillance ships). The last minesweepers left the fleet of the Russian Navy in the late nineties.
After the end of the Second World War, for the sake of the political situation, for many years there was (and partly continues to exist) a certain bias in the assessment of allied assistance during the war years. A few, mostly magazine and newspaper articles, which, as a rule, were fragmentary, gave a biased assessment of the Lend-Lease received by the Soviet Union military equipment and materials. At the same time, it was not stipulated that some of the very necessary types of equipment and weapons delivered were not at all in the Soviet Army and Navy (radar, sonar, non-contact trawls, multi-barrel bombers, etc.), while certain types of military products obtained under the land- liza, exceeded in volume similar ones made by the Soviet industry, or accounted for a large proportion.
In particular, this applies to cars and tractors (see IBO #31, 1999), as well as steam locomotives and wagons. The Soviet Air Force operating on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War included more than 15% of the aircraft received from the allies under Lend-Lease.
Significantly replenished with imported ships and vessels, various weapons and equipment, the Soviet fleet. Thus, as a result of lend-lease deliveries, the number of patrol ships in the Pacific Fleet in 1945 increased by 4-5 times compared to the beginning of the war. The number of minesweepers in the USSR Navy doubled. The Northern Fleet, which in June 1941 had only two torpedo boats, by 1945 was replenished with 47 American boats of the Vosper (A-1), Higgins (A-2) and ELKO (A-3) types. From the USA in 1943-1945. 43 landing craft of special construction were received, which the Soviet fleet actually did not have, although the need for them was great (more than 100 landing operations of various sizes were carried out by the fleet during the war years).
Unfortunately, the bulk of Lend-Lease ships arrived in the USSR only in 1944-1945, at the final stage of the war.
Quantity
The first Allied proposals for the supply of ships and boats date back to September 1941, when the head of the Soviet military mission in Great Britain, Rear Admiral Nikolai Kharlamov, in a letter to the head of the shipbuilding department of the Navy, Engineer Rear Admiral Nikolai Isachenkov, said that the "firm" Canadian Powers Boat Company "offers to manufacture 100 torpedo boats for the USSR, 25 boats a month. This proposal became a prerequisite for ordering and supplying 202 torpedo boats to the Soviet Union.
Under an English license, the American firms Annapolis Yacht Yard and Hershov built boats of the Vosper type, designed by Scott-Payne, in Bristol and Comden. They were sent to the USSR assembled. The Electric Boat Company (ELKO), which did not have the right to sell finished boats to the Soviet Union, supplied complete sets of hull parts and mechanisms, as well as technical means and necessary documentation. In the USSR, boats were assembled at a shipyard with the participation of American specialists. Higgins-class torpedo boats were built in New Orleans. In the Soviet Union, the torpedo tubes on these boats were replaced by domestic ones.
The performance data of the three types of American torpedo boats were very close: displacement - 45-50 tons, full speed - 36-39 knots, cruising range - 420-450 miles; torpedo armament - two 533-mm caliber vehicles, artillery - 20-mm Oerlikon-type anti-aircraft gun. The crew of the boat was 11-14 people (according to the staff of the USSR Navy).
To the Soviet Union torpedo boats delivered by sea on transport ships.
60 wooden patrol boats of the "RPC" and "RTS" types with a displacement of 27 tons were delivered to the USSR on merchant ships. The Americans used them to rescue the crews of aircraft shot down in the coastal areas of the sea. In the Soviet Navy, they were classified as small hunters of the MO-1 type, although they did not have hydroacoustic equipment to search for submarines.
Large hunters of the "SC" type (according to the Soviet classification of the BO-2 type) were built at 26 US shipyards. The hunter's body is wooden. Displacement - 126 tons, full speed - 17 knots. Artillery armament included a 40-mm Bofors-type cannon and three 20-mm Oerlikon-type submachine guns. There was radar and sonar technology.
For such small ships, a long passage through the stormy North Atlantic was a very difficult and dangerous business. Nevertheless, the big hunters accepted by the Soviet crews crossed the ocean under their own power, showing examples of maritime training and stamina. In total, the USSR Navy received 78 large hunters (SF-36, Pacific Fleet-32, BF-4, Black Sea Fleet-6). Ships were delivered to the Black and Baltic Seas by inland waterways.
The supply of minesweepers, which were especially needed by the fleet, began with ships of the "AM" ("amiki") type, built at the shipyards of Tampa, Williametta, Madisonville and Lorain. Minesweepers had a steel hull. Displacement - 914 tons, full speed - 13.5 knots, cruising range - 7000 miles. The main armament of the ship was an electromagnetic trawl of the "LL" (LL) type, which practically did not exist in the Soviet fleet, as well as two acoustic trawls and a contact striker of the "Oropez" type. The anti-submarine complex included two bombers, two bombers and a sonar station. The minesweeper was equipped with radar equipment.
Of the 34 minesweepers of the AM type received under Lend-Lease, 10 were included in the Northern Fleet, and 24 in the Pacific.
Under lend-lease, 43 minesweepers of the "YMS" type (UMS) were received. They had a wooden case, were low-magnetic and low-noise, equipped with sets of the latest for that time contact and non-contact trawls, radar and hydroacoustic equipment. Their displacement is 345 tons, full speed is about 13 knots, cruising range is 2030 miles. Artillery armament included one 76.2 mm cannon and two 20 mm machine guns.
The bulk of the ships intended for the Pacific Fleet were handed over by the Americans to Soviet sailors at the Cold Bay naval base (the southwestern tip of the Alaska Peninsula). General leadership the training of crews and the transfer of ships was led by the commander of the naval detachment "3294" (subdivision "Hula-2") Captain William Maxwell. With a number of technical devices, primarily with a radar and a sonar, as well as with an automated control system for an electromagnetic trawl, Soviet sailors got acquainted for the first time. Training was conducted in classrooms on the shore, and then directly on the ships. In total, 12,400 officers and sailors of the Soviet fleet were trained in Cold Bay.
The author of these lines, who happened to serve on the ship for four years, first as the commander of an artillery and mine-torpedo warhead, (BCH-2 -3) and then as a navigator (BCH-1), who was at the same time an assistant commander on such minesweepers.
England handed over to the Soviet Union in 1942-1944. 10 minesweepers of the "MMS" type (MMS) with a displacement of 260 tons, equipped with electromagnetic and acoustic trawls. The ships were accepted in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
The Pacific Fleet included 28 frigates of the "PF" or "Tacoma" type transferred under lend-lease from the United States (according to the Soviet classification of the "EK" type - escort or patrol ships). These were pretty capital ships. Their displacement is about 2300 tons, full speed is more than 19 knots. The frigate was armed with three 76.2 mm guns, two 40 mm Bofors cannons and nine 20 mm Oerlikon machine guns. The deck housed two bombers and nine bombers. There was a sonar station and several radar installations. The crew consisted of 195 people.
Quality
The quality of the ships received under Lend-Lease and their role in the combat operations of the Soviet fleet can be judged from a letter from Vice Admiral Eliseev to the People's Commissariat foreign trade USSR dated June 5, 1945: "It should be noted that the ships received from the allies largely ensured the activity of the fleet. Minesweepers, submarine hunters and torpedo boats successfully operated in accordance with their purpose."
Due to supplies from the USA, it was especially replenished Pacific Fleet. This was dictated by the USSR's commitment, given at the Yalta Conference of the Three Powers, to enter the war with Japan no later than three months after the victory over Germany. From the spring of 1944 to September 1945, the Soviet teams received 215 ships at the Cold Bay naval base with a total value of 228 million dollars (in 1946 prices).
The ships received there by several groups moved to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, and from there to their permanent bases. Many of them took part in the fighting against Japan. Several imported ships that distinguished themselves in battle became guards.
The aviation of the Navy during the war years received 2158 combat aircraft of various types under lend-lease from the USA and Great Britain. During this period, 6877 aircraft were delivered to naval aviation from domestic industry. The share of imports thus amounted to 31.3%.
In addition to ships and aircraft, the Soviet Navy received a lot of other equipment and spare parts from the Allies. So, 555 radar stations for various purposes were sent from England for the Soviet fleet, and 641 from the USA. The deliveries of radar equipment were a particularly tangible help: at the beginning of the war, the naval fleet had the only radar station installed on the Black Sea cruiser "Molotov".
England handed over to the Soviet Union for the fleet 329 Asdik-type sonars. "The ultraacoustic devices we received (sonars. - V.K.) differed sharply in better side from our similar stations" - this is how the deputy head of the communications department of the USSR Navy, engineer-captain 1st rank Gusev, assessed this equipment.
The Allies supplied the Soviet fleet with a large number of marine engines and generators. They were equipped with more than one third of all combat boats of the fleet.
The development by the Soviet fleet of ships and samples of naval equipment received from the allies to a certain - and in some cases significant - extent helped our designers to make significant adjustments to the already created and still being developed ship designs.
The study of American boats made it possible to create a domestic boat of project 201, which was distinguished by high seaworthiness, an efficient control system, good habitability and better weapons.
The new Soviet minesweepers began to be equipped with electromagnetic trawls, in terms of parameters close to the American and British trawls of the "LL" type. The minesweepers had sonar, which could be used both to search for submarines and to detect mines. For service anti-submarine ships multi-barreled bombing installations of the Hedgehog type bombers were received.
Based on the experience of the allies, a reliable and convenient VHF radio station of the American "MN" type was introduced for intra-squadron communications in the USSR Navy. She allowed the commanders and watch officers of the ships sailing in a marching order to negotiate without resorting to the help of a radio operator.
Taking into account the experience of the Americans in the Soviet Navy in the very first post-war years, training complexes were developed for working out anti-submarine teams (for example, the Ataka complex). On them, the commander of the ship, the officer on duty and the hydroacoustic developed the skills to search for a submarine, maintain hydroacoustic contact with it, attack and destroy it. At the same time, conditions were created that were very close to reality.
There were other innovations that appeared on Soviet ships as a result of the study and development of weapons and equipment received from Lend-Lease allies.
Undoubtedly, the military products of the domestic industry played a decisive role in the victory over Germany. At the same time, one cannot objectively belittle the importance of allied assistance to the USSR under Lend-Lease, including for the Soviet fleet.