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Ropucha-class landing ship

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The Ropucha-class landing ship Kaliningrad during a visit to Cartagena in 2004
Class overview
NameRopucha class
BuildersStocznia Północna Shipyard, Gdańsk, Poland
Operators
Preceded byPolnocny class
Succeeded byIvan Gren class
Subclasses
  • Project 775 (Ropucha I)
  • Project 775M (Ropucha II)
In commission1974
Completed28
Active
  • Project 775: 12
  • Project 775M: 3
Retired13
General characteristics [1]
TypeLanding ship/tank landing ship
Displacement
  • 2,200 tons standard
  • 4,080 tons full load
Length112.5 m (369 ft 1 in)
Beam15 m (49 ft 3 in)
Draft3.7 m (12 ft 2 in)
RampsBow and stern
Installed power
Propulsion2 × propellers
Speed18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Range6,100 nmi (11,300 km; 7,000 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Endurance30 days
Capacity
Complement87–98
Armament

The Project 775, NATO reporting name Ropucha class (Polish for Toad), is a class of landing ship (large landing ship in Soviet classification) built in Poland for the Soviet Navy. The ships were built in the Stocznia Północna shipyards in Gdańsk, Poland. They were designed for beach landings, and can carry a 450-ton cargo. The ships have both bow- and stern-doors for loading and unloading vehicles, and the 630 square metres (6,800 sq ft) of vehicle deck stretches the length of the hull. Up to 25 armored personnel carriers can be embarked.

While designed for roll-on/roll-off operations, they can also be loaded using dockside cranes. For this purpose there is a long sliding hatch-cover above the bow section for access to the vehicle deck. There are no facilities for helicopters.

In total, 28 ships of this type were commissioned from 1975 to 1991. The last three ships were of the improved variant Project 775M, also called Ropucha II. These have improved defensive armament and accommodation for a greater number of troops.

Operational history

The landing ship Georgiy Pobedonosec on exercises in the Barents Sea
BDK Alexander Shabalin

Most of the ships became part of the Russian Navy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. They were used for landing troops at the Georgian port of Poti during the 2008 South Ossetia war and for deliveries of cargo during the Russian military intervention in the Syrian civil war.

One ship of the class was delivered to South Yemen in 1979 and served the Yemeni Navy until 2002, before it was sold as a civilian cargo named Sam of Yemen. It was the only unit of this class in service outside the former Soviet Union.

On 3 August 2012, international media reported that three vessels of the class, Aleksandr Otrakovskiy, Georgiy Pobedonosets and Kondopoga would visit the Russian naval base in Tartus, Syria. The ships were part of the Northern Fleet. Earlier reports, quoting a source at the Russian general staff, said the ships would spend a few days in Tartus and would take on fresh supplies of food and water. British media added that the ships each had up to 120 marines on board.[2][3]

The Russian defence ministry left open the possibility that the ships might dock there at some point for logistical reasons, saying they had every right to do so. The General Staff source, who was not named, had said that after calling in at Tartus they would head for the Bosporus and the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.[2][4]

From 2013 on, ten Ropucha-class ships, gathered from all four Russian fleets, were used to transport military equipment from Novorosiysk to Tartus in Syria, during an intervention in Syrian civil war, along with Ropucha-class ships.[5]

All ships of the Russia's Black Sea Fleet, namely Caesar Kunikov, Novocherkassk, Yamal and Azov were modernized with installation of the Tsentavr-NM2S, Auriga and Cobham SAILOR satellite phones.[6]

Operations during the Russo-Ukrainian War

A PT-76 amphibious tank leaving a Project 775 ship at the bow gate

The Ukrainian Navy's only ship of the class, Kostiantyn Olshansky, was seized by Russian troops and accepted into service with the Russian Navy after the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in March 2014.[7]

In February 2022 prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the landing ships Korolev, Minsk, Kaliningrad, Pyotr Morgunov, Georgy Pobedonosets, and Olenegorsky Gornyak from the Baltic and Northern fleets departed their bases and passed through the Dardanelles Strait for exercises in the Black Sea.[8][9][10]

In early August 2023, Olenegorsky Gornyak was seriously damaged at the Black Sea Novorossiysk naval base after it was struck by a Ukrainian maritime drone carrying 450 kilograms (990 lb) of TNT.[11] The ship was pictured under tow, listing 40–50 degrees to port as tugboats worked to put it in a safe position.[12][13]

On 13 September 2023, Russian military reported that the Sevastopol Shipyard had been struck by an Ukrainian missile attack, damaging the Ropucha-class landing ship Minsk and the Kilo-class submarine Rostov-on-Don.[14][15][16][17] The UK Ministry of Defence assessed Minsk as being "functionally destroyed" as a result of the attack with a greater than 95% probability.[18][19]

Ships

Project[20] Name Hull No. Builders Commissioned Fleet Status Notes
775 BDK-47 (ex-SDK-47) 134 Gdańsk Shipyard 1 July 1974 Baltic Fleet Decommissioned 17 December 1994
BDK-48 (ex-SDK-48) 094 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 June 1975 Pacific Fleet Decommissioned 5 July 1994
BDK-63 (ex-SDK-63) 083 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 June 1975 Pacific Fleet Decommissioned 5 July 1994
BDK-90 (ex-SDK-90) 058 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 November 1975 Pacific Fleet Decommissioned 5 July 1994
Olenegorsky Gornyak 012 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 June 1976 Northern Fleet Active Being repaired in drydock after Ukrainian naval drone impact on 4 August 2023 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[13]
BDK-181 (ex-SDK-181) 083 Gdańsk Shipyard 9 October 1976 Pacific Fleet Decommissioned 5 July 1994
Kondopoga (ex-SDK-182) 027 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 November 1976 Northern Fleet Active
Kotlas (ex-SDK-183) 035 Gdańsk Shipyard 15 March 1977 Northern Fleet Decommissioned 22 June 2005
BDK-197 (ex-SDK-197) 093 Gdańsk Shipyard 21 September 1977 Pacific Fleet Decommissioned 5 July 1994
BDK-200 (ex-SDK-200) 011 Gdańsk Shipyard 17 December 1977 Northern Fleet Decommissioned 30 June 1993
Alexandr Otrakovsky (ex-SDK-55) 031 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 July 1978 Northern Fleet Active
BDK-119 (ex-SDK-119) Gdańsk Shipyard 27 February 1979 Pacific Fleet Transferred to South Yemen in 1979, decommissioned in 2002 and converted to cargo ship 'Sam of Yemen', sunk in 2018.
775/II BDK-14 070 Gdańsk Shipyard 31 August 1981 Pacific Fleet Decommissioned 3 May 2001
Oslyabya (ex-BDK-101) 066 Gdańsk Shipyard 19 December 1981 Pacific Fleet Active
BDK-105 125 Gdańsk Shipyard 2 March 1982 Baltic Fleet Decommissioned 10 May 2002
Admiral Nevelskoy (ex-BDK-98) 055 Gdańsk Shipyard 28 September 1982 Pacific Fleet Active
BDK-32 039 Gdańsk Shipyard 1982 Northern Fleet Decommissioned 10 May 2002
Minsk 127 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 May 1983 Baltic Fleet Not active "Functionally destroyed" in Ukrainian attack on Sevastopol on 13 September 2023.[18][19][21][22]
Kaliningrad (ex-BDK-58) 102 Gdańsk Shipyard 9 December 1984 Baltic Fleet Active
Georgiy Pobedonosets (ex-BDK-45) 016 Gdańsk Shipyard 5 March 1985 Northern Fleet Active
Konstantin Olshansky (ex-BDK-56) 154 Gdańsk Shipyard 1985 Black Sea Fleet Not active Transferred to Ukraine in 1996, captured March 2014 during the Russian invasion of Crimea.[23]
Alexandr Shabalin (ex-BDK-60) 110 Gdańsk Shipyard 31 December 1985 Baltic Fleet Active
Caesar Kunikov (ex-BDK-64) 158 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 September 1986 Black Sea Fleet Active Damaged on 24 March 2022 in a Ukrainian attack in the port of Berdiansk during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[24]
Novocherkassk (ex-BDK-46) 142 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 November 1987 Black Sea Fleet Active Damaged on 24 March 2022 in a Ukrainian attack in the port of Berdiansk during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[24]
Yamal (ex-BDK-67) 156 Gdańsk Shipyard 30 April 1988 Black Sea Fleet Active
775M Azov (ex-BDK-54) 151 Gdańsk Shipyard 12 October 1990 Black Sea Fleet Active
Peresvet (ex-BDK-11) 077 Gdańsk Shipyard 10 April 1991 Pacific Fleet Active
Korolev (ex-BDK-61) 130 Gdańsk Shipyard 10 July 1991 Baltic Fleet Active

See also

References

  1. ^ "Black Sea Fleet hazers broke young sailor's jaw". Rusnavy.com. 10 November 2010. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  2. ^ a b "Russia denies warships heading for Syria's Tartus port". BBC News. 3 August 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2013.
  3. ^ Loiko, Sergei L. (3 August 2012). "Russia reportedly sending warships with marines to Syrian waters". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  4. ^ Loiko, Sergei L. (3 August 2012). "Russia reportedly sending warships with marines to Syrian waters". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 4 August 2012.
  5. ^ Kubiak, Krzysztof (2017). "Syryjski ekspres". Raport-WTO (in Polish). No. 4. p. 48. ISSN 1429-270X.
  6. ^ "Оснащение больших десантных кораблей Черноморского флота системами спутниковой связи" [Equipping large landing ships of the Black Sea Fleet with satellite communication systems]. bmpd.livejournal.com (in Russian). 11 December 2018. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  7. ^ "Russia sets for deploying in Syria large landing ship seized from Ukraine in annexed Crimea - media". Unian. 9 February 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Ukraine crisis: Russia sends 6 landing warships to Black Sea". South China Morning Post. 9 February 2022. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  9. ^ Sutton, H. I. (8 February 2022). "6 Russian Warships And Submarine Now Entering Black Sea Towards Ukraine". Naval News. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
  10. ^ McCleary, Paul (10 February 2022). "'Dangerous moment': Russian naval buildup near Ukraine hits Cold War levels". Politico. Retrieved 24 February 2022.
  11. ^ Balmforth, Tom (4 August 2023). "Russian warship damaged in Ukrainian attack on Novorossiysk naval base - sources". Reuters. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  12. ^ Staalesen, Atle (4 August 2023). "Northern Fleet ship seriously damaged in drone attack". The Barents Observer. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  13. ^ a b Ozberk, Tayfun (4 August 2023). "Ukraine strikes Russian landing ship with Kamikaze USV". Naval News. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  14. ^ Amran, Rachel (13 September 2023). "UPDATE: Explosions reported at marine plant in occupied Sevastopol, 24 reported injured". The Kyiv Independent. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Fire at naval shipyard in Russia-annexed Crimea after Ukraine air attack". Aljazeera. 13 September 2023. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  16. ^ Martínez, Andrés R.; Santora, Marc (13 September 2023). "Ukraine Strikes Russian Naval Ships in Black Sea". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  17. ^ Taylor, Will (13 September 2023). "Russia's $300 million Kilo-class submarine hit in attack on Black Sea Fleet naval base as fireballs light up shipyard". LBC. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  18. ^ a b UK Ministry of Defence [@DefenceHQ] (15 September 2023). "Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 15 September 2023" (Tweet). Retrieved 15 September 2023 – via Twitter.
  19. ^ a b "Defence Intelligence – communicating probability". Government of the United Kingdom - Ministry of Defence. 17 February 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  20. ^ "Large landing ships - Project 775". russianships.info. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  21. ^ Haynes, Deborah (13 September 2023). "British cruise missiles were used in significant Ukrainian attack on Russian submarine". Sky News. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  22. ^ Oryx. "List Of Naval Losses During The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine". Oryx. Retrieved 13 September 2023.
  23. ^ "Моряки понівечили "Костянтина Ольшанського" перед штурмом – ЗМІ". pravda.com.ua (in Ukrainian). 24 March 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
  24. ^ a b "Польша поставила России контрафактные детали для десантных кораблей" [Poland supplied Russia with counterfeit parts for landing ships]. mash.ru (in Russian). 24 August 2022. Archived from the original on 28 August 2022.

Sources

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