Kronshtadt class submarine chaser
Encyclopedia
Project 122bis (NATO codename Kronshtadt class) submarine chasers were a Soviet design which were exported throughout the communist bloc in the 1950s. The first ship, BO-270, was built at Zelenodolsk
in 1945-1947 and a total of 227 were built for Soviet Navy (175) and border guard until 1955. Besides, twenty units Project 357 (Libau class) despatch vessels were built on similar project, but without weapon.
Voluntary Society for using as training ships.
in the Paracel Islands
on January 19, 1974, with #274 heavily damaged. However, #274 was able to make it back to the Yongxing Island for emergency repair after the battle, and returned to Hainan Islands the next day.
Despite their obsolescence, these boats remained active well into the mid 1990’s. Although the ships are no longer capable venturing into open ocean, these units remain on the People's Liberation Army Navy
’s list of its reserve fleet, actively used as weaponry training boats for naval militia in various military maritime districts in China.
The second mission of this class is to take Chinese children enrolled in military / naval summer camps and junior military / naval academies for short cruises for patriotic education and public relations missions. However, due to the age of these units, they are increasingly being used in its secondary missions in recent years and according to domestic Chinese media sources, even in this limited capacity of the secondary mission, the cruises are only consisted of short tours within the harbors.
Zelenodolsk
Zelenodolsk may refer to:*Zelenodolsk, Russia, a city in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia*Zelenodolsk, Ukraine, a town in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine...
in 1945-1947 and a total of 227 were built for Soviet Navy (175) and border guard until 1955. Besides, twenty units Project 357 (Libau class) despatch vessels were built on similar project, but without weapon.
Service history
The ships served in 1950s–1960s on all Soviet fleets and flotillas in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Arctic Ocean and Pacific Ocean as part of Soviet coastal anti-submarine defences. Ships were also given to the Soviet Border Guard and were used actively as border patrol ships. In 1956 these ships were reclassified to "small anti-submarine ships". Most of the Soviet sub-chasers were decommissioned between 1958 and 1970, although some were in service until the 1990s as training stations. 13 of the decommissioned and disarmed ships were delivered to the DOSAAFDOSAAF
DOSAAF was a paramilitary society in the Soviet Union, Voluntary Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet . The society was preserved in a number of post-Soviet Republics, e.g., in Russia and Belarus...
Voluntary Society for using as training ships.
Ships
- Built in 1946 (launching year):
- BO-270 (laid up 30.06.1945, launched 27.04.1946, commissioned 27.09.1947 on Caspian Flotilla)
- BO-171...BO-173
- 1947:
- BO-181...BO-187
- 1948:
- BO-187...BO-195
- 1949:
- BO-196...BO-201
- BO-247...BO-255
- BO-271...BO-276
- 1950:
- BO-277...BO-300
- BO-334...BO-338
- 1951:
- BO-339...BO-354
- BO-356...BO-379
- 1952:
- 'BO-371...BO-402
- 1953:
- BO-403...BO-437
- 1954:
- BO-438...BO-440
- BO-446...BO-453
- PSKR-444...PSKR-451, PSKR-436, PSKR-437
- BO-454...BO-469
- 1955:
- BO-470...BO-480
- BO-155
- PSKR-424, PSKR-418, PSKR-407
- BO-157
- PSKR-408, PSKR-419, PSKR-425, PSKR-426
- BO-159...BO-163
Export and transferring
- Albania:
- MPK-345 (1951), MPK-346 (1951) in 1958 (both returned in 1960),
- MPK-388 (1952), MPK-389 (1952) in 1958,
- MPK-394 (1952), MPK-450 (1954) in 1960.
- Bulgaria:
- 94 (ex-MPK-160) (1955) and 95 (ex-MPK-162) (1955) in 1957.
- China:
- BO-379 (1952), BO-380 (1952), BO-393 (1952), BO-395 (1952), BO-396 (1952), BO-397 (1952) in 1955.
- Besides, 6 hulls were built at Zelenodolsk in 1954, transferred in parts by railway to GuangzhouGuangzhouGuangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
(2) and ShanghaiShanghaiShanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
(4) and commissioned on People's Liberation Army Navy, and was designated as the Type 6604 submarine chaser. - Furthermore, 14 built in China with the assistance of Soviet specialists, with 12 completed at the end of 1956 and 2 in 1957. The first Chinese built unit entered service in 1957 and was designated as the Type 04 submarine chaser.
- Cuba:
- MPK-462 (1954), MPK-464 (1954), MPK-465 (1954), MPK-479 (1955), MPK-155 (1955), MPK-159 (1955) in 1962.
- Indonesia:
- MPK-424 (1953), MPK-426 (1953), MPK-427 (1953), MPK-429 (1953) in 1958,
- MPK-292 (1950), MPK-293 (1950), MPK-294 (1950), MPK-300 (1950), MPK-334 (1950), MPK-382 (1952) in 1963. These six ships were reconstructed specially for Indonesian Navy by project "06" — with rearming by RBU-1200 rocket launchers and accommodating to tropical service conditions.
- Poland:
- Czujny (ex-BO-411) (1953), Nieugiety (ex-BO-412) (1953), Zawziety (ex-BO-417) (1953), Zwrotny (ex-BO-418) in 1955,
- Zwinny (ex-MPK-291) (1950), Zreczny (ex-MPK-296) (1950), Wytrwaly (ex-MPK-344) (1951), Grozny (ex-MPK-347) (1951) in 1957.
- Romania:
- V1 (ex-BO-157) (1955), V2 (ex-BO-161) (1955) and V3 (ex-BO-466) (1954) in 1956.
Chinese service history
Two boats of this class, #271 & #274 participated in the Sino-South Vietnamese naval battleBattle of Hoang Sa
The Battle of the Paracel Islands is a military engagement fought between the naval forces of the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Vietnam in the Paracel Islands on January 19, 1974....
in the Paracel Islands
Paracel Islands
The Paracel Islands, also called Xisha Islands in Chinese and Hoàng Sa Islands in Vietnamese, is a group of islands under the administration of Hainan Province, The People's Republic of China. Vietnam and the Republic of China also claim sovereignty of these islands...
on January 19, 1974, with #274 heavily damaged. However, #274 was able to make it back to the Yongxing Island for emergency repair after the battle, and returned to Hainan Islands the next day.
Despite their obsolescence, these boats remained active well into the mid 1990’s. Although the ships are no longer capable venturing into open ocean, these units remain on the People's Liberation Army Navy
People's Liberation Army Navy
The People's Liberation Army Navy is the naval branch of the People's Liberation Army , the military of the People's Republic of China. Until the early 1990s, the navy performed a subordinate role to the PLA Land Forces. Since then, it has undergone rapid modernisation...
’s list of its reserve fleet, actively used as weaponry training boats for naval militia in various military maritime districts in China.
The second mission of this class is to take Chinese children enrolled in military / naval summer camps and junior military / naval academies for short cruises for patriotic education and public relations missions. However, due to the age of these units, they are increasingly being used in its secondary missions in recent years and according to domestic Chinese media sources, even in this limited capacity of the secondary mission, the cruises are only consisted of short tours within the harbors.