Since there are lots of people on this forum who like to think that late cold war soviet navy was combination of old rusty hulls that would sink at first breeze and drunken sailors I decided to open thread about Soviet Navy…
In this thread I will try to provide information’s about history, doctrine and some CFE information about its strength…
You are all welcome to pitch in whit all data you have about ships, armament systems, radars etc.
After contacting Golly I decided to start this thread in Professional discussions section to avoid spamming and ww3 scenarios… If you are not vip member and wont to contribute to this thread you can contact me on pm. Also I apologize for bad spelling (since I’m not native English speaker) and usage of NATO codenames for soviet equipment…
Since I don’t have to much time lately I will start whit historical background and try to post late 1980s ORBAT tomorrow…
Part 1
History
Modern development starts whit 6.january 1956. when Sergey Georgyevich Gorshkov was appointed commander-in-chief of the Soviet Navy. He oversaw a massive naval build-up of surface and submarine forces, creating a force capable of challenging Western naval power by the late 1970s.
Between 1956 and 1970 they started development of rocket and nuclear weapons, nuclear ship propulsion and cut development of conventional fleet, reduce navy air component to 1000 aircraft, abandoned naval bases in Port Arthur(China) and Pokkala (Finland).
Main threat at that time was US CBGs and there bomber component that was meant to deliver nuclear strikes at soviet soil…
To counter that threat soviets have started interdiction of new ships, aircrafts and subs armed whit anti ship missiles (4 Kildin and 8 Krupny DDG whit SS-N-1 SSM, 4 Kynda and 4 Kresta1 cruisers whit SS-N—3 SSM, Tu-16 and Tu-22 bombers armed whit AS-1, AS-2, AS-3 and AS-4 ASM, Whiskey twin cilinder/Long bin submarines armed whit SS-N-3) and started production of Kashin class DDG…
They started production of November class SSN (14 built antil 1963), Golf class SSBK (32 armed whit SS-N-5 Serb ballistic missiles) and Hotel class SSBN.
For coastal defenses Soviets build dozens of Komar and Osa 1 FAC.
Kashin class DDG
In the beginning of 1960s US navy shifted it nuclear strike force from carrier based bombers to SSBN armed whit Polaris A1 and A2 (2275km range) ballistic missiles.
Those submarines operated in North and Norwegian Sea and in East Mediterranean sea out of the range of soviet fleet operational area.
To counter new threat soviet since 1962 to 1978 started new ASW program. Soviet navy changed priorities practically over the night: ships are rearmed whit anti submarine weapons, they needed to develop new sonar systems in weary short time (It is estimate that the time soviets were behind US some 20 years in sonar tech development).They managed to develop first efficient low frequency panoramic sonar in only 5 years.
New ASW ship classes were developed (Kara2 and Kresta cruisers, Krivak frigates, Moskva class ASW cruisers/helicopter carriers), ships are armed whit SAM systems.
For attacks on US surface fleet they developed Charlie class SSGN armed whit SS-N-7 SSM.
Charlie class SSGN
In 1970s USN developed new SSBN armed whit new Polaris A-3 and Poseidon missiles and developed SOSUS system in strategic points in North Atlantic and Pacific which enabled them to monitor movements of soviet SSBN (and especially new Yankee class SSBN armed whit SS-N-6).
To counter that soviet started to rearm Yankees whit SS-N-8 and fielded new Delta class SSBN. SS-N-8 has range of 7770km so new soviet subs were able to attack targets in US
from Barents sea under protection from soviet surface fleet and land based aircrafts.
In late 1970s they also developed new tactics: soviet surface ships and Tu-22 Backfires were train to attack NATO ASW barrier on GI-UK line(Greenland – Island – UK) and doing so clear path in Atlantic for soviet SSGN and SSN( to attack sea communication lines between US and Europe and US CBG).
To support those tactical plans they created surface action groups based around Kievs and Kirovs( to attack NATO surface fleets) and created sea surface unified surveillance system based around Bear D aircrafts and surveillance satellites (to track NATO surface fleets).
Since 1978 to 1990 they started new ship building program to support new doctrine (Sovremenny and Udaloy class DDG, Kirovs, Kievs, Slavas…)
Kirov class cruiser
There were plans to build new aircraft carriers and create CBG but then CCCR collapsed…
In this thread I will try to provide information’s about history, doctrine and some CFE information about its strength…
You are all welcome to pitch in whit all data you have about ships, armament systems, radars etc.
After contacting Golly I decided to start this thread in Professional discussions section to avoid spamming and ww3 scenarios… If you are not vip member and wont to contribute to this thread you can contact me on pm. Also I apologize for bad spelling (since I’m not native English speaker) and usage of NATO codenames for soviet equipment…
Since I don’t have to much time lately I will start whit historical background and try to post late 1980s ORBAT tomorrow…
Part 1
History
Modern development starts whit 6.january 1956. when Sergey Georgyevich Gorshkov was appointed commander-in-chief of the Soviet Navy. He oversaw a massive naval build-up of surface and submarine forces, creating a force capable of challenging Western naval power by the late 1970s.
Between 1956 and 1970 they started development of rocket and nuclear weapons, nuclear ship propulsion and cut development of conventional fleet, reduce navy air component to 1000 aircraft, abandoned naval bases in Port Arthur(China) and Pokkala (Finland).
Main threat at that time was US CBGs and there bomber component that was meant to deliver nuclear strikes at soviet soil…
To counter that threat soviets have started interdiction of new ships, aircrafts and subs armed whit anti ship missiles (4 Kildin and 8 Krupny DDG whit SS-N-1 SSM, 4 Kynda and 4 Kresta1 cruisers whit SS-N—3 SSM, Tu-16 and Tu-22 bombers armed whit AS-1, AS-2, AS-3 and AS-4 ASM, Whiskey twin cilinder/Long bin submarines armed whit SS-N-3) and started production of Kashin class DDG…
They started production of November class SSN (14 built antil 1963), Golf class SSBK (32 armed whit SS-N-5 Serb ballistic missiles) and Hotel class SSBN.
For coastal defenses Soviets build dozens of Komar and Osa 1 FAC.
Kashin class DDG
In the beginning of 1960s US navy shifted it nuclear strike force from carrier based bombers to SSBN armed whit Polaris A1 and A2 (2275km range) ballistic missiles.
Those submarines operated in North and Norwegian Sea and in East Mediterranean sea out of the range of soviet fleet operational area.
To counter new threat soviet since 1962 to 1978 started new ASW program. Soviet navy changed priorities practically over the night: ships are rearmed whit anti submarine weapons, they needed to develop new sonar systems in weary short time (It is estimate that the time soviets were behind US some 20 years in sonar tech development).They managed to develop first efficient low frequency panoramic sonar in only 5 years.
New ASW ship classes were developed (Kara2 and Kresta cruisers, Krivak frigates, Moskva class ASW cruisers/helicopter carriers), ships are armed whit SAM systems.
For attacks on US surface fleet they developed Charlie class SSGN armed whit SS-N-7 SSM.
Charlie class SSGN
In 1970s USN developed new SSBN armed whit new Polaris A-3 and Poseidon missiles and developed SOSUS system in strategic points in North Atlantic and Pacific which enabled them to monitor movements of soviet SSBN (and especially new Yankee class SSBN armed whit SS-N-6).
To counter that soviet started to rearm Yankees whit SS-N-8 and fielded new Delta class SSBN. SS-N-8 has range of 7770km so new soviet subs were able to attack targets in US
from Barents sea under protection from soviet surface fleet and land based aircrafts.
In late 1970s they also developed new tactics: soviet surface ships and Tu-22 Backfires were train to attack NATO ASW barrier on GI-UK line(Greenland – Island – UK) and doing so clear path in Atlantic for soviet SSGN and SSN( to attack sea communication lines between US and Europe and US CBG).
To support those tactical plans they created surface action groups based around Kievs and Kirovs( to attack NATO surface fleets) and created sea surface unified surveillance system based around Bear D aircrafts and surveillance satellites (to track NATO surface fleets).
Since 1978 to 1990 they started new ship building program to support new doctrine (Sovremenny and Udaloy class DDG, Kirovs, Kievs, Slavas…)
Kirov class cruiser
There were plans to build new aircraft carriers and create CBG but then CCCR collapsed…