The Kalmar class (Project 1206, NATO reporting name Lebed) are a class of medium-sized assault hovercraft designed for the Soviet Navy. The few remaining craft are operated by the Russian Navy. Designed by the

design bureau OKB is a transliteration of the Russian initials of "" – , meaning 'experiment and design bureau'. During the Soviet era, OKBs were closed institutions working on design and prototyping of advanced technology, usually for military application ...

wing of Almaz shipbuilding company early in the 1970s, production started in 1972 and continued until 1985 in plants at

Leningrad Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and Theodosia.

Configuration

The Lebed class is the Russian Navy equivalent to the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

LCAC LCAC may refer to: Hovercraft * A generic term for an air cushioned landing craft, taken from US Navy designation "Landing Craft, Air Cushion". ** Landing Craft Air Cushion, a US Navy hull classification symbol for the Landing Craft Air Cushion-c ...

, though the U.S. version entered service seven years later. The Lebed class entered service in 1975, and by the early 1990s 20 had been produced. The ship has a bow ramp with a gun on the starboard side and the bridge to port. The Lebed class can be carried by the . The type began to be withdrawn following the

fall of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

, and by 2004 only three remained. Number 533 is in the Northern Fleet, while 639 and 640 took part in the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, often described as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia; east of the Caucasus, west of the broad steppe of Central Asia ...

exercises of 2002.

Capacity

Each hovercraft can carry up to 40 tons of cargo.

Registry

*533 *639 *640

In popular culture

Lebed-class hovercraft were featured in the 1986

Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have ...

novel ''

Red Storm Rising ''Red Storm Rising'' is a war novel, written by Tom Clancy and co-written with Larry Bond, and released on August 7, 1986. Set in the mid-1980s, it features a Third World War between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Warsaw Pact for ...

''. In the novel, four Lebeds were used to carry military personnel and equipment from the disguised barge carrier

MV Yulius Fuchik ''Yulius Fuchik'' ( rus, Юлиус Фучик)Although the name of the ship is sometimes transliterated as ''Julius Fucik'', such as in the Tom Clancy novel, in official context she is referred to as ''Yulius Fuchik'', transliterated using the So ...

to Iceland in a surprise invasion.

References