Soviet cruiser Marshal Voroshilov

Armament

For her primary role as an anti-submarine cruiser, Marshal Voroshilov mounted two quadruple launchers for eight anti-submarine missiles in the Metel anti-ship complex. She was also equipped with two RBU-6000 12-barrel and two RBU-1000 6-barrel rocket launchers.^[4] The Ka-25 helicopter embarked on the cruiser was also capable of aiding in the search and destruction of submarines.^[5]

Marshal Voroshilov was armed with four AK-725 57 mm L/80 DP guns situated in two twin mountings to protect against aerial threats. She also had four 30 mm AK-630 CIWS mountings, and was armed with two twin launchers for the 48 V-611 surface-to-air missiles they carried in the M-11 Shtorm system. She also mounted two quintuple mountings for 533 mm (21 in) dual-role torpedoes.^[4]

Electronics warfare

Marshal Voroshilov was equipped with the MR-600 Voskhod (NATO code name Top Sail) early warning air search radar, the MR-310U Angara-M (NATO code name Head Net C) search radar, and the Volga (NATO code names Don Kay and Don-2) navigational radar. For anti-submarine warfare she had improved MG-332T Titan-2T hull mounted sonar.^[6] For fire control purposes she had Grom SA-N-1 fire control and MR-103 Bars AK725 fire control. Marshal Voroshilov also had a MG-26 communications outfit and a MG-35 Shtil sonar.^[4][1][6] Marshal Voroshilov was the first ship of her class completed with the MR-123 Vympel fire control radar for the AK-630, as the first four ships had not received it.^[1]

1970s

Marshal Voroshilov was relocated to Baltiysk in preparation for its voyage to the Pacific Fleet at Vladivostok after the completion of state tests in the Baltic during late 1973. While passing through the English Channel, it was shadowed by Royal Navy ships and extensively photographed; the first time a Kresta II-class cruiser had been spotted in Western waters.^[9] During the voyage, it visited Port Louis with the tanker Grozny between 2 and 8 March 1974, then Malabo and Berbera between 3 and 17 April.^[8] The ship was assigned to the 201st Anti-Submarine Warfare Brigade of the fleet's 10th Operational Squadron on 11 June, based at Zolotoy Rog. She operated in the Indian Ocean in 1975 and 1976, and was under routine repair at the Dalzavod shipyard in Vladivostok between 30 March and 25 December 1977. During the winter of 1977–1978 the cruiser participated in a rescue operation for three Riga-class frigates of the Sakhalin Flotilla during severe storms in the northern Sea of Japan, which damaged the stern Shtorm launcher and forward Volga navigational radar.^[10] With sister Kresta II-class cruiser Admiral Oktyabrsky, destroyer Sposobny, frigate Razyashchiy, and the missile cruiser Vladivostok, she was involved in Pacific Fleet maneuvers on 7 April 1978, observed by General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev and Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov from the cruiser Admiral Senyavin.^[11]

Under the command of Captain 2nd rank Georgy Ilyin, Marshal Voroshilov began an Indian Ocean cruise on 7 July 1979, and rendezvoused with Vladivostok on 25 July at Socotra. She visited Victoria on 25 August, Massawa on 30 September, and Maputo on 28 October. Captain 3rd rank Vasily Floryak took command on 7 November after Ilyin was injured in a car accident and evacuated by plane to the Soviet Union. Continuing her cruise with another visit to Victoria on 8 December, she shadowed a United States Navy carrier group led by USS Nimitz in the Strait of Hormuz between 27 December and 28 January 1980. Marshal Voroshilov visited Colombo on 20 February before returning to Vladivostok on 14 March.^[11]

1980s and end of service

The cruiser was refitted at Dalzavod between November 1980 and March 1986, and won the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy's prize for anti-submarine training results in 1986 and 1989. In April 1988, as part of a search group with the missile cruiser Tallinn, and the frigates Ryanyy and Gordelivyy, in cooperation with the submarine K-436 and aircraft, she tracked a United States submarine and forced it to move away from the patrol area of the ballistic missile submarine K-479 in the Sea of Okhotsk as part of an anti-submarine exercise. The search group then carried out a search for enemy submarines along the Kuril Ridge, discovering and tracking a foreign submarine on 21 April for eight hours and 37 minutes. Between August and April 1989, she operated in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean, temporarily based at Cam Ranh. Marshal Voroshilov collided with the refrigerated cargo vessel Gorets at the entrance to the Eastern Bosphorus on 20 November 1990.^[11]

The cruiser was renamed Khabarovsk after the city on 24 January 1991 as a result of declining Communist ideological influence. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the cruiser was transferred to the Russian Navy, though her career in the latter was brief, as she was placed in reserve on 3 July 1992. Marshal Voroshilov was decommissioned on 29 October due to the deterioration of the ship and lack of funds for repair, and the hull was transferred to an underwater engineering detachment, intended to be sold for scrap. A large fire broke out aboard the ship on 23 August, while it was moored at the Kalinin ferry, and burned until the next day, burning out much of the interior spaces of the ship and leaving it with a pronounced list to port due to the amount of firefighting water pumped in; the hull was subsequently scrapped there.^[11]

During her career, Marshal Voroshilov was assigned the temporary tactical numbers 597, 511, 555, 561, 563 (in 1982), 137, and 504 (in 1990).^[11]

Citations

Bibliography

• Averin, A.B. (2007). Адмиралы и маршалы. Корабли проектов 1134 и 1134А [Admirals and Marshals: Ships Project 1134 and 1134A] (in Russian). Moscow: Voennaya Kniga. ISBN 978-5-902863-16-8.
• Berezhnoy, S.S. (January 1995). "Советский ВМФ 1945-1995: крейсера, большие противолодочные корабли, эсминцы" [Soviet Navy, 1945–1995: Cruisers, large anti-submarine ships, and destroyers]. Морская коллекция [Morskaya kollektsiya] (in Russian). Modelist-konstruktor (1).
• Chant, Christopher (1987). A Compendium of Armaments and Military Hardware. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge. ISBN 978-0415710725.
• Hampshire, Edward (2017). Soviet Cold War Guided Missile Cruisers. New Vanguard 242. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-1740-2.
• Pavlov, Alexander (1995). Военные корабли СССР и России 1945-1995 гг. Справочник [Warships of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1945–1995: Handbook] (in Russian). Yakutsk: Sakhapoligradizdat. OCLC 464542777.