Design
The specifications for the ''Project 253'' were issued in April 1942 by admiral Lev Galler. Initial design iteration made by TsKB-32 was unsatisfactory and was transferred in 1943 to TsKB-51 for improvements, resulting in ''Project 253L'' (named after chief designer N. G. Loshchinskii). The minesweepers were badly needed in the heavily mined Baltic Sea, therefore pre-production series comprising 32 vessels were ordered 12 April 1943, followed by full-capacity production on two shipyards starting from 12 June 1943. The minesweeper was extremely successful, resulting in 4 shipyards assigned to its production starting from 31 October 1943.Mikhail Monakov, Jurgen Rohwer, "Stalin's Ocean-going Fleet: Soviet Naval Strategy and Shipbuilding Programs 1935-1953", p.155 Two main versions were produced: *''MT-1'' (June 1943) - full displacement 126.6 tons *''MT-2'' (April 1944) - full displacement increased to 141.3 tons, smaller engines rated to . The ships were routinely fitted with four mine-sweeping gears, comprising two mechanical trails, magnetic and acoustic towed trails.Ships
A total of 92 ships were built, all to the Baltic fleet operation. Numbers were T-222 to T-249, T-351 to T-391, T-434 to T-441, T-459 to T-479. Only T-387 was lost to enemy action been sunk bySee also
*References
External links