The Poti class was the

NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...

for a group of

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations are t ...

(ASW)

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the slo ...

s built for the Soviet Navy. The Soviet designation was Project 204 small anti-submarine ships. These ships were the first Soviet warships powered by

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...

engines; two propellers were mounted in tunnels to give a very shallow draught. A twin gun mounting provided self-defence. Three ships of the class were exported to Romania and six to Bulgaria during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. By 2008, all ships of the class were no longer extant.

Design and description

Designated ''Maly Protivo Lodochny Korabl'' (Russian: Small Anti-submarine Ship) by the Soviet Navy, Project 204 (

Poti class) was the first class of

s not based on the traditional

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

ant-submarine (ASW) design constructed by the Soviets. The Poti class reversed a trend of smaller ships, being larger than the preceding and es, which allowed the vessels to mount larger guns. The Poti class were also the first large Soviet

warship A warship or combatant ship is a naval ship that is built and primarily intended for naval warfare. Usually they belong to the armed forces of a state. As well as being armed, warships are designed to withstand damage and are usually faster a ...

s to incorporate

s and were the fastest ASW warships ever constructed by them. Corvettes of Poti class measured long with a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a draught of . They had a

standard displacement The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...

of and fully loaded. The ships were powered by a two

shaft Shaft may refer to: Rotating machine elements * Shaft (mechanical engineering), a rotating machine element used to transmit power * Line shaft, a power transmission system * Drive shaft, a shaft for transferring torque * Axle, a shaft around whi ...

combined diesel and gas Combined diesel and gas (CODAG) is a type of propulsion system for ships that need a maximum speed that is considerably faster than their cruise speed, particularly warships like modern frigates or corvettes. Pioneered by Germany with the , a ...

propulsion system consisting of two M-2 gas turbines creating and two M503A

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s creating . The two propellers were mounted in thrust tubes which extended the length of the prop. The gas turbines exhausted through ports in the

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

and were also used to power air compressors which exhausted into the thrust tubes to create extra thrust. The power plant was similar to those found in the . This gave the ships a maximum speed of and a range of at or at . In Soviet service, the corvettes were armed with a single

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

mounted forward comprising twin /80

dual-purpose gun A dual-purpose gun is a naval artillery mounting designed to engage both surface and air targets. Description Second World War-era capital ships had four classes of artillery: the heavy main battery, intended to engage opposing battleships and ...

s. Some of the earlier Soviet ships had open mounts, with later units having closed units. The guns had 85 degree elevation and could fire a shell to a range of up to 120 rounds per minute. They were also equipped with either twin-mounted or quad-mounted

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s for Soviet Type 40 ASW

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, su ...

es. The torpedoes had active/passive homing up to and had a speed of and carried a warhead. The first units constructed mounted two 16-tubed RBU-2500 ASW rocket launchers, with later vessels receiving two 12-tubed

RBU-6000 The RBU-6000 Smerch-2 (Реактивно-Бомбовая Установка, ''Reaktivno-Bombovaja Ustanovka''; reaction engine-bomb installation & Смерч; waterspout) is a 213 mm caliber Soviet Union, Soviet anti-submarine weapon, a ...

ASW models. The Soviet Poti class were equipped with Don 2 surface search

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

Strut Curve A strut is a structural component commonly found in engineering, aeronautics, architecture and anatomy. Struts generally work by resisting longitudinal compression, but they may also serve in tension. Human anatomy Part of the functionality of ...

air search radar, Muff Cobb fire control radar. They also had one hull-mounted high-frequency Herkules

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigation, navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect o ...

and one Hormone dipping sonar. For electronic countermeasures, the corvettes had two Watch Dog units. The corvettes had a complement of 80 officers and ratings in Soviet service.

Ships

A total of 66 ships were built between 1960 and 1968. In the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

the Poti-class corvettes were decommissioned by the late 1980s and replaced in service by the s. Builders were: *Kerch yard 24 ships *Zelenodolsk yard : 32 ships *Khabarovsk yard: 8 ships

Export

Bulgaria

Following World War II, Bulgaria entered the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. By the 1950s, the Bulgarian military had been re-organised along Soviet lines and equipped with Soviet armaments. In 1955, Bulgaria acquired Kronstahdt-class submarine chasers to outfit their ASW forces. Bulgaria required replacements for these ships as they became obsolete and six Poti-class ships were transferred between 1975 and 1990 to the

Bulgarian Navy The Bulgarian Navy ( bg, Военноморски сили на Република България, Voennomorski sili na Republika Balgariya, lit=Naval Forces of the Republic of Bulgaria) is the navy of the Republic of Bulgaria and forms part of ...

. The former Soviet numbers of most of the individual ships are not known, but it is known that ''MPK-59'', ''MPK-77'' and ''MPK-109'' were among the ships given to Bulgaria. By 2008, all of Bulgaria's Poti-class corvettes had been discarded.

Romania

Post World War II, Romania fell into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence and joined the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP) or Treaty of Warsaw, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance, was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republic ...

. However, by the beginning of 1964 Romania began to diverge from Soviet direction and as a result, saw limited military support afterwards, with the rift between the two countries widening in 1968 after the

invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

. Three ships were transferred to the

Romanian Navy The Romanian Navy ( ro, Forțele Navale Române) is the navy branch of the Romanian Armed Forces; it operates in the Black Sea and on the Danube. It traces its history back to 1860. History The Romanian Navy was founded in 1860 as a river flot ...

in 1970. The Romanian ships carried the older RBU-2500 ASW rocket launchers and twin torpedo tubes using Soviet Type 53 torpedoes. All three ships were constructed at Zelenodolsk and were transferred upon completion. The former Soviet numbers of the individual ships are not known, but it is known that ''MPK-106'' and ''MPK-125'' were among the ships given to Romania.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * *

External links

*
boinaslava.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poti-class corvette Corvette classes Ships of the Soviet Navy Corvettes of the Soviet Navy Corvettes of the Bulgarian Navy Corvettes of the Romanian Naval Forces