Hello everyone, welcome back again with us at Military TV. Before watching this video,
let us tell you a little information about our new format.
Henceforward, we will make video based on a certain edition that consists of many episodes.
The First edition is about the Destroyer. But If you want to see other episodes of this
edition. Go to the link in the description below.
So today we start with the first episode by discussing the destroyer of Project 956 known
as The Sovremenny class from USSR. The Sovremenny class is a destroyer of Soviet
origin. It was developed in the late 1970's to complement the Udaloy class which is better
suited in the anti-submarine role. The Sovremenny class was to be used against NATO warships
and to provide air defense. The ships have anti-ship, anti-aircraft, anti-submarine and
coastal bombardment capability. Sovremenny is the widely used NATO reporting name for
what is officially called the Project 956. Its nickname is Sarych which is Russian for
buzzard. Its primary role is to attack enemy warships while also providing sea and air
defense for warships and transports under escort. For your information, the destroyers
of Project 956 are third-generation Soviet destroyers, and the Ships of this project
were the last destroyers built in the USSR. Let's see the history.
The project began in the late 1960s when it was becoming obvious in the Soviet Navy that
naval guns still had an important role particularly in support of amphibious landings, but existing
gun cruisers and destroyers were showing their age. A new design was started, employing a
new 130 mm automatic gun turret. Single- and twin mounts were developed, and the twin mount
chosen for its superior rate of fire. In 1971 a go-ahead was given for the Severnaya design
bureau to design "a ship capable of supporting amphibious landings". At the same time, the
US Navy was constructing new large Spruance class multirole destroyers. To respond to
this new threat, Project 956 was updated with new air defence suite and new, powerful 3M80
anti-ship missiles. Although the Soviet Navy had largely moved to gas turbine propulsion
for its new warships, steam turbines were selected instead for Project 956.
Lead ship of the class, Sovremenny was laid down in 1976 and commissioned in 1980. A total
of 18 have been built for the Russian Navy but only 5 remain in service due to lack of
funds and trained personnel. All the ships were built by Severnaya Verf 190 St. Petersburg.
The Sovremenny class has a typical Soviet layout. A turret and SAM system are fitted
on the forward deck, the large missile launchers are located next to the bridge, the funnel
and sensor masts are located on the superstructure in the middle, the helicopter deck and second
SAM system and turret are located at the rear. The telescopic hanger supports one Ka-27 Helix
helicopter. Now, let us tell you the specification of
the Project 956. The Sovremenny Class destroyer has a maximum
displacement of 8,480t and is similar in size to the USA Navy's Aegis-equip. Moreover, the
ship's combat systems can use target designation data from the ship's active and passive sensors,
from other ships in the fleet, from surveillance aircraft or via a communications link from
the ship's helicopter. The multi-channel defense suite is capable of striking several targets
simultaneously. While its armaments, the ship is equipped
with the Raduga Moskit anti-ship missile system with two four-cell launchers installed port
and starboard of the forward island and set at an angle about 15°. The ship carries a
total of eight Moskit 3M80E missiles, NATO designation SS-N-22 Sunburn. The missile is
a sea-skimming missile with velocity Mach 2.5 and armed with a 300kg high-explosive
warhead or a nuclear 200kt warhead. The range is from 10km to 120km. The launch weight is
4,000kg. Two Shtil surface-to-air missile systems are
installed, each on the raised deck behind the two-barrelled 130mm guns. Shtil is the
export name of the SA-N-7, NATO reporting name Gadfly. The system uses the ship’s
three-dimensional circular scan radar for target tracking. Up to three missiles can
be aimed simultaneously. The range is up to 25km against targets with speeds up to 830m/s.
The ship carries 48 Shtil missiles. The ship’s 130mm guns are the AK-130-MR-184
supplied by the Ametist Design Bureau and the Frunze Arsenal Design Bureau in Saint
Petersburg. The system includes a computer control system with electronic and television
sighting. The gun can be operated in fully automatic mode from the radar control system,
under autonomous control using the turret-mounted Kondensor optical sighting system and can
also be laid manually. Rate of fire is between 20 and 35 rounds/min.
The ship also has four six-barrel 30mm AK-630 artillery systems. The maximum rate of fire
is 5,000 rounds/min. Range is up to 4,000m for low-flying anti-ship missiles and 5,000m
for light surface targets. The gun is equipped with radar and television detection and tracking.
Besides, the destroyer has two double 533mm torpedo tubes and two six-barrel RBU-1000
anti-submarine rocket launchers, with 48 rockets. Range is 1,000m. The rocket is armed with
a 55kg warhead. You can see the ship’s helicopter pad, it
accommodates one Kamov Ka-27 anti-submarine warfare helicopter, NATO codename Helix. The
helicopter can operate in conditions up to Sea State 5 and up to 200km from the host
ship. The Project 956 destroyer is also fitted with an electronic countermeasures system
and carries a store of 200 rockets for the two decoy dispensers, model PK-2 and it is
equipped with three navigation radars, an air target acquisition radar, and fire control
radars for the 130mm gun and the 30mm gun. The sonar suite includes active and passive
hull-mounted search and attack sonar. Whereas the ship’s propulsion system, it
is based on two steam turbine engines each producing 50,000hp, together with four high-pressure
boilers. There are two fixed-pitch propellers. The ship’s maximum speed is just under 33kt.
At a fuel-economic speed of 18kt, the range is 3,920 miles.
Talking about the variants, There are a total of three versions of this
class: the original Project 956 armed with the 3M80 version of the Moskit anti-ship missile,
and its successor, the Project 956A, which is armed with the improved 3M80M version of
the Moskit anti-ship missile with longer range. The main difference between the two is that
the missile launching tubes on Project 956A are longer than that of Project 956 to accommodate
the increased size of the newer missile, and these launching tubes can be used to fire/store
the original 3M80 as well. A third version, Project 956EM, later developed for the People's
Liberation Army Navy was the latest development of this class. Chinese media called the ship
"carrier killer". Thanks for watching and see you in another
episode of destroyer.