Soviet Naval Forces

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Revision as of 04:09, 13 December 2007

Before 1962 the Soviet Naval Forces were primarily a coastal defense force. The Cuban missile crisis and United States quarantine of Cuba in 1962, however, made the importance of oceangoing naval forces clear to the Soviet Union. Today the Soviet Naval Forces have nearly 500,000 servicemen organized into five combat arms which gives the Soviet Union a capability of projecting power beyond Europe and Asia.

Submarine Forces

Submarines are the most important forces in the Soviet Naval Forces. The Soviet Union has the largest number of ballistic missile submarines in the world. Most of the ballistic missile submarines can launch their nuclear-armed missiles against intercontinental targets from Soviet home waters. The deployment of mobile land-based ICBMs, however, could reduce the importance of ballistic missile submarines as the Soviet Union's most survivable strategic force.

Soviet attack submarines have an antisubmarine warfare (ASW) mission. In wartime the attack submarine force would attempt to destroy the enemy's ballistic missile and attack submarines. Since 1973 the Soviet Union has deployed over a dozen different attack submarine classes, including several new types since 1980. The Soviet Union also has numerous guided missile submarines for striking the enemy's land targets, surface combatant groups, and supply convoys.

Surface Forces

Between 1962 and the early 1970s, the Soviet Union's World War II-era Naval Forces became a modern guided missile cruiser and destroyer force. In addition, in the late 1970s the Soviet Union launched its first nuclear-powered Kirov-class battlecruiser, its third class of guided missile cruisers, and two new classes of guided missile destroyers. These surface forces have had the peacetime task of supporting Soviet allies in the Third World through port visits and arms shipments as well as visibly asserting Soviet power and interests on the high seas. In wartime, they would conduct both antiship and antisubmarine operations.

A variety of auxiliary ships support the Naval Forces and the armed forces in general. The Soviet Union operates a large number of intelligence-gathering vessels, manned by naval reservists and equipped with surface-to-air missiles. It also has the world's largest fleet of oceanographic survey and marine research vessels. Over 500 ships gather and process data on the world's oceans that would be crucial to the Soviet Union in wartime. Eleven specially equipped vessels monitor and track Soviet and foreign space launches. Yet Western experts have noted that the Soviet Naval Forces still lacks enough specialized underway replenishment vessels to provide adequate logistical support to naval combatants at sea.

Naval Aviation

Naval Aviation was primarily land-based; its main mission was to conduct air strikes on enemy ships and fleet support infrastructure. The importance attached to its antiship mission was shown by the fact that Naval Aviation has received almost as many bombers as have the Strategic Air Armies. Naval Aviation also provided ASW and general reconnaissance support for naval operations.

Naval Aviation consists of nearly 1,000 fixed-wing aircraft and over 300 helicopters. The Naval Aviation fleet includes 360 medium-range bombers armed with air-to-surface cruise missiles for carrying out antiship strikes. Naval Aviation also has 100 fighter-bombers that provide close air support to Naval Infantry. Older aircraft in Naval Aviation's inventory have been converted into ASW and maritime reconnaissance platforms.

Since the 1970s, the Soviet Naval Forces have attempted to overcome its major weakness - fleet air defense beyond the range of land-based aircraft - by deploying four Kiev-class aircraft carriers. In the late 1980s, the Soviet Union began constructing its two Leonid Brezhnev class carriers, which became fully operational by the early-mid 1990s.

Naval Aviation operates the Mil Mi-14, Kamov Ka-27, and Kamov Ka-25 helicopters and the Sukhoi Su-27, Mikoyan MiG-29, Sukhoi Su-33, Yakovlev Yak-38, and Sukhoi Su-25 fixed-wing aircraft, as well as the numerous variants of each of these aircraft.

Naval Infantry

In the early 1960s, Naval Infantry became a combat arm of the Soviet Naval Forces. Naval Infantry consists of 18,000 marine troops organized into one division and three brigades. Naval Infantry has its own amphibious versions of standard armored vehicles and tanks used by the Ground Forces. Its primary wartime missions would be to seize and hold strategic straits or islands and to make seaborne tactical landings behind enemy lines. The Soviet Naval Forces have over eighty landing ships as well as two amphibious assault docks. The latter are assault ships that can transport one infantry battalion with forty armored vehicles and their amphibious landing craft. At seventy-five units, the Soviet Union has the world's largest inventory of air-cushion assault craft. In addition, many of the Soviet merchant fleet's (Morflot) 2,500 ocean-going ships can off-load weapons and supplies in an amphibious landing.

Coastal Defense Forces

Protecting the coasts of the Soviet Union from attack or invasion from the sea has remained one of the most inportant missions of the Naval Forces. To defend an extensive coastline along three oceans and two inland seas, the Soviet Union has deployed a sizeable and diverse force. Defensing naval bases from attack has been the primary focus of the Coastal Defense Forces. Coastal Rocket and Artillery Troops, consisting of a single division, operates coastal artillery and naval surface-to-surface missile launchers along the approaches to naval bases. A large number of surface combatants, including light frigates, missile attack boats, submarine chasers, guided missile combatants, amphibious craft, and patrol boats of many types, also participate in coastal defense.

The Fleet

Note: This list is by no means complete.

Aircraft carriers

• 2 Leonid Brezhnev class aircraft carriers
  • 12 Sukhoi Su-33
  • 5 Sukhoi Su-25UB
  • 4 Kamov Ka-27LD32
  • 18 Kamov Ka-27PLO
  • 2 Kamov Ka-27S
• 4 Kiev class aircraft carriers
  • 12 Yakovlev Yak-38
  • 7 Kamov Ka-29
  • 7 Kamov Ka-31

Submarines

• 12 Borei class SSBN
• 7 Typhoon-class SSBN
• 13 Delta-III class SSBN
• 7 Delta-IV class SSBN
• 12 Akula-I class SSN
• 5 Akula-II class SSN
• 2 Oscar-I class SSGN
• 11 Oscar-II class SSGN
• 24 Kilo class SSB
• 4 Lada class SSB

Cruisers

• 5 Kirov class battlecruisers
  • 2 Kamov Ka-29
  • 1 Kamov Ka-31
• 7 Kara class guided missile cruisers
  • 1 Kamov Ka-27
• 4 Slava class guided missile cruisers
  • 1 Kamov Ka-27

Destroyers

• 21 Sovremenny class destroyers
  • 1 Kamov Ka-27
• 12 Udaloy class destroyers
  • 2 Kamov Ka-27
• 25 Kashin class destroyers

Frigates

• 12 Koni class frigates
• 33 Krivak class frigates
• 1 Neustrashimy class frigate
• 3 Tartarstan class frigates

Corvettes

• 4 Steregushchy class corvettes
  • 1 Kamov Ka-27
• 16 Parchim class corvettes
• 36 Nanuchka class corvettes
• 12 Grisha class corvettes

Missile hovercraft

• 2 Bora class guided missile hovercraft