Project 68-bis Sverdlov class
The major surface units in the post-WWII Soviet Navy, construction halted when Nikita Khrushchev decided the program had been made obsolete by the advent of guided missiles. One unit was converted to an experimental guided missile cruiser [the Adm. Nakhimov] and the Dzerhinsky was refitted in 1960 with the SA-N-2 surface to air missile. Two other units were converted to command ships in the early 1970s.
"Sverdlov", the lead ship of project 68 bis, was laid down on 15 October 1949, launched on 5 July 1950 and commissioned on 15 May 1952. Their construction was carried out in accordance with a new technique, by forming (for the first time in national shipbuilding) an all-welded hull (instead of riveted one), which allowed to reduce the construction period about twice. The construction period was brought to two-and-half years.
Of all the cruiser programs, the most strenuously carried out was the construction of Project 68bis series. From Project 68K they had a larger displacement with a lengthened forecastle. They switched to a fully welded hull. Cruisers had new means of location and connection. While designing explicitly used the Italian experience, and apparently they very much resembled an Italian heavy cruiser Bolzano. By reducing guns to 152 mm caliber, improved seaworthiness, habitability, increased cruising range, and supply of space, they possessed great potential for modernization.
The cruisers of project 68 bis became the biggest series in the history of national shipbuilding. Construction of Project 68bis light cruisers turned in nine places at plants in Leningrad, Nikolayev and Molotovske. Baltiysky Zavod built in total six cruisers of this project. The first ship - Dzerzhinsky - was laid in Nikolayev on December 21, 1948. This was the largest series of Cruisers in the history of domestic shipbuilding. Starting from the 15th ship of the series - "Scherbakov" - construction was carried out by an improved Project 68bis-ZIF. The 37-mm machine guns were replaced 45-mm guns with power guidance and radar.
N.S.Khrushchev, who came to power in 1953, after the death of J.V.Stalin, halved the five million man army, shifting all the funds to restore the national economy. Despite its "voluntarism" N.S.Khrushchev (to his credit) immediately realized the value of missiles, directly estimating them as the main deterrent in its confrontation with the capitalist world. He took a line on the strong rearmament of the Army and Navy, in the belief - though mistaken - that missiles can do everything. The development of artillery was almost stopped, with only a supporting role.
Thus began a full-scale rout of the fleet, the most expensive component in the system of production of weapons. Advancing the era of missile weapons and the construction of a number of warships were considered impractical to Khrushchev. The decision to scrap almost built ships was an economic mistake, if not a crime.
The unfinished project 68bis cruisers had to be especially carefully considered. These cruisers had a magnificent steel hull, equipped with good propulsion, enabling them to serve until the beginning of the 1990's. Of course, the Commerce Raider concept was completely unrealistic in the 1950s, as the development of location, coastal and naval aviation excluded such cruisers. With a few exceptions, the Project 68bis cruisers continued in their original form.
Only 14 Project 68bis cruisers were built. In varying degrees of readiness, mostly already afloat, there were still 7 Project 68bis-ZIF cruisers. Keeping all cruisers the, including unfinished, and modernizing them in accordance with the requirements of the time, would not require building new missile carriers and halicopter carriers, and all the Soviet shipbuilding programs of the 1960s-80s would be quite different.
For the test of missile weapons two project 68bis cruisers were converted. On "Dzerzhinsky" was tested anti-aircraft m-2 is a slightly modified conventional ground complex p-75. The "Admiral Nahimov" experimented witht the anti-aircraft "arrow", created previously designed for refining the Tu-4 "Comet". Both directions are limited. The "Admiral Nakhimov" tried to return to the original design, but then was scrapped. Dzerzhinsky was exclude from the fleet in the 1980s. It could be called Raketonoscem, as the complex M-2 used a huge ship scale rockets longer than 10 pm before launch, and had to be refilled with aggressive, venomous fuel, and the ammunition included only 10 such missiles.
The artillery cruiser "Mikhail Kutuzov" of project 68-bis with a length of 210 m and a displacement of 16 thousand tons was launched in 1952. As part of the Black Sea Fleet, he performed tasks in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic, made 15 long-distance campaigns. Withdrawn from service in 1992, was in Sevastopol. In 2001 he was taken to Novorossiysk, where since 2002 she has been working as a museum ship, a branch of the Central Naval Museum.
Docking and repair of the cruiser-museum "Mikhail Kutuzov" located in Novorossiysk is currently impossible due to lack of funds and the ship may not reach its 70th anniversary. This was reported to TASS 14 May 2021 by a source in the veteran circles of the Krasnodar Territory. "Unlike the cruiser Aurora, Mikhail Kutuzov is not part of the Navy and, according to the law, cannot be repaired at the expense of the state defense order. The ship belongs to the Department of Culture of the Ministry of Defense as an ordinary museum and is funded as a cultural object," he said.
In April 2021, Ruslan Nekhai, director of the Central Naval Museum of the Russian Ministry of Defense, of which the cruiser is a branch, announced plans to solve the problem of docking in 2021-2022. According to the source, the hull of the cruiser, which underwent the previous dock repair in 2001, with the maximum standard of no more than five years, is in a deplorable state. "Everything flows, especially the feed. Only the heroic efforts of the crew and technical means, as reported in the open press, do not allow it to drown. The residual thickness of the hull is unknown," he said.
"Without docking, the cruiser can roll over against the wall and carry away the rescuers and the crew," he said. The interlocutor of the agency said that, according to available data, the funds for docking the cruiser have not been precisely calculated. Docking of similar ships can cost approximately 300 to 400 million rubles. The main contractor of the contract is still determined by the results of the bidding. Although the auction is preceded by a lot of preparatory work, which is to clarify the price and opportunities to dock the cruiser. Not all enterprises with docks can repair the hull structures, including the armored hull, and maybe replace the stern.
According to the source, there is a floating dock PD-190 in Novorossiysk, capable of receiving an old cruiser. In Sevastopol, three factories - the Sevastopol Marine Plant branch of Zvezdochka Shipbuilding Center JSC, the 13th Shipyard of the Black Sea Fleet, and Remkor LLC can carry out extended dock repairs of the ship. But no one asked these enterprises for actual calculations, otherwise the figure of the required financing of 1 billion rubles would not have sounded. However, the towing of a ship to Sevastopol, according to experts, requires careful preparation and the possible use of pontoons.
Earlier it was reported about the plans of the military department to populate the "Mikhail Kutuzov" before being towed to the Crimea, following the example of "Aurora", a military crew. "This is also associated with certain additional costs," the source said. One of the deputy defense ministers of the Russian Federation previously reported that the cruiser-museum would be repaired in Novorossiysk by the end of 2020.
The problem is much deeper, the interlocutor of the agency said, and stretches into the distant past, when museum ships were completely excluded from the Navy and transferred not only to the civilian state, but were also excluded from financing under the state defense order. “Only the Aurora was lucky. But maybe the veteran ships deserve a better share on their retirement and can be maintained and financed as auxiliary ships of the Navy?” The source said. “They continue to serve, but differently, popularizing the fleet. old people, squeak and hold on, and then suddenly leave. "
Project 68bis Training Ship
Project 68bis Helicopter Carrier
Another ship, the cruiser Project 68bis, could become a light carrier, a draft of which had been designed and whose appearance was assumed. Of course, it was not quite the ship, which had previously designed the Project 85 ship designed to provide air defense of surface ships at sea and in battle. It carried around 20-25 aircraft. Nothing would give a greater experience for further development of the aircraft carriers, with the pilot operation of the project. Is was not implemented.
The Navy developed a draft Project 68bis Cruiser remodeled into the helicopter carrier to carry 14 helicopters Ka-25-ship aboard ship to provide for the long-range defense zone. Besides helicopters, armament consisted of 4 twin launchers LRK m-1, 4 x 2 AY-76 mm mill-67 and 2 x 5 TA ' modifications. The Navy would limit itself to one ship for trial operations, to refine the concept, to enter service in 1960-1962. The led by 5-7 years Project 1123, which would not take place. The thing is that already during the design process it would turn out that 14 existing helicopters can't provide 24-hour patrols of the search zone, and as it turned out that much later on the project 1123. Not for nothing did the third draft in Project 1123.3 have enlarged dimensions and a lot of helicopters.
Option conversion project 68bis / 68AB Cruiser MILL in aircraft carrier
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