INFOGRAPHICS #54: World War II and Cold War submarines of the Soviet Navy

The following images were created by Naval Encyclopedia and depict the majority of the submarine classes that served with the Soviet Navy (Military Maritime Fleet of the USSR) during World War II and Cold War (1947-1991). You can read the complete article here. Enjoy! 

Soviet Navy WWII submarines

Soviet Navy submarines during Cold War. Profiles by Mike 1979 Russia

PHOTO GALLERY #30: Admiral Makarov, Admiral Grogorovich class frigate of the Russian Navy

Photos by Γ.Μ.

Admiral Makarov, an Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate

In this post you will enjoy some very good photos of Admiral Makarov, the latest Admiral Grigorovich-class (pr. 11356M) multi-mission frigate of the Russian Navy Black Sea Fleet, during her visit in Kerkyra (Corfu), as part of the 17th Hellenic -Russian Week in the Ionian Islands. Admiral Makarov was commissioned in December 27, 2017 and she is the third and morel likely the final vessel in the class, as the two incomplete vessels (4th and 5th) will be purchased by India for completion while the future of the 6th vessel is not known. The general characteristics of the class is a displacement of approximately 4,000t at full load, length of 124.8m, beam of 15.2m, maximum speed of 30 knots and a range of 4,850n.m. with the speed of 14 knots. Because some systems are not visible, it should be mentioned that the ship is equipped with among others a bow sonar (MGK-335EM-03) and a towed sonar array (Vignette-EM). The crew is 180-200. Enjoy photos of this quite heavily armed frigate!

WARSHIPS OF THE PAST: Ivan Rogov class large landing ships of the Russian Navy

Written by Keith Jacobs
Images by D-Mitch

Mitrofan Moskalenko, the third vessel in the Ivan Rogov class

The Ivan Rogov (Project 1174) class amphibious dock landing ships (LPD) were in the early 1970s the largest amphibious warship design then attempted by the former-Soviet Union. They were robust, highly flexible, and expensive in construction and maintenance costs, but offered for the first time, long-distance operational capability to place Soviet naval infantry in such distant locations as the eastern Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, or Southeast Asia, in conducting mosrkaia descantnaia operatsiia (Sea Landing Operation) in support of Soviet policy objectives. Till today, the three vessels of the Project 1174 LPD, are the largest amphibious warfare ships ever commissioned by the Russian Navy.

Mitrofan Moskalenko, the third and most advanced vessel in the Ivan Rogov class

INFOGRAPHICS #30: The Russian Navy submarines today

Written by D-Mitch 

Dmitriy Donskoy, the last of the Typhoon class undersea giants...

In the following infographic, The Russian Navy submarines in 2019, I depict all the submarines that are currently in commission with the Russian Navy (as of May 1, 2019). Currently, the Russian Navy (Russian: Военно-морской Флот Российской Федерации (ВМФ России), lit. Military-Maritime Fleet of the Russian Federation) operates an impressive number of powerful nuclear-powered and diesel electric submarines,. The Russian ballistic missile submarine (SSBN) fleet  consists of  four (4) Borei class SSBN (the fourth vessel and lead ship of the fifth generation Borei II-class, Knyaz Vladimir, is scheduled to enter service this year), six (6) Delta IV class SSBN, one recently overhauled Delta III class SSBN (Ryazan) and the last (and upgraded) boat of the largest ever built submarine class, the Typhoon class Dmitriy Donskoy (TK-208). Moreover, Russia operates eight (8) Oscar II class guided missile submarines (SSGN), 11 Akula I/II/III class nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN) plus one more boat (Nerpa) which has leased to India from 2012 for 10 years (Chakra), one Yasen class SSN while one more, K-561 Kazan, is about to be commissioned this year, two (2) Victor III class boats and four (4) Sierra I/II class boats. The active diesel electric submarine fleet consists of 24 boats, all of them except three boats of the Lada class (two to be delivered by the end of the year or the next one), belong to the Kilo/Improved Kilo class attack submarines. The Russian Navy maintains also a significant amount of special purpose submarines including two nuclear-powered modified Delta III/IV boats (they operate as motherships for mini submarines, for a combination of oceanographic research, search and rescue, and underwater intelligence-gathering) as well as the 90 (?) -meter Sarov and the nuclear-powered AS-12, known also as Losharik. It should be mentioned that many boats are still inactive or in modernization overhaul, so for some of them their status is unclear.

FLEETS #15: Russian Navy

Some of the heaviest surface combatants of Russian Navy
today in formation, Marshal Ustinov in the foreground and
Peter the Great in the background.

The U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), published an excellent report accompanied by some very good graphs, about the current and future capabilities of Russia's maritime forces. ONI's most recent unclassified report on Russia's navy, The Russian Navy - A Historic Transition, looks historically and currently at the role played by Russian Naval forces. It is the first such report discussing the Russian Federation Navy by ONI since the seventh and last issue of Understanding Soviet Naval Developments published in 1991. Moreover, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is making available publicly two great tables, the one about the Russian Major Navy Forces by Fleet, Russian Major Navy Forces by Fleet (Continued) and Russian Navy New Constructions.

INFOGRAPHICS #17: Russian Navy submarines (collection)

The past meets the present! Typhoon and Borei SSBN class

This is a collection of fifteen (15) infographics about Russian Navy submarines. The majority of them refer to those vessels that are currently in active service. Please keep in mind that the data on the infographics might not be completely accurate, some of the reported numbers are approximations such as the operational depth, the submerged speed, other capabilities or even the number of submarines that are in active service. As somebody can guess, this is classified information.

The first infographic was created by the talented artist Anton Egorov and it depicts in one image all the submarines that are currently in service with the Russian Navy and their main characteristics and capabilities.

Russian Navy submarines by Anton Egorov High resolution image here.

INFOGRAPHICS #16 and HISTORY #3: Battleships of WWII!

Written by D-Mitch

IJN Yamato in 1941. The ship, together with its sister-ship,
IJN Musashi, were the only super-battleships that saw action.

This article is devoted to the battleships, the most powerful ships to sail the waves and the pride of every navy from 1880 to the early '40s. These large warships with the impressive gun armament, the so-called "Castles of Steel" or "The Floating Fortresses", were a symbol of naval dominance and national might, and for decades the battleship was a major factor in both diplomacy and military strategy. The following image (compiled by iksanov) depicts individual battleships and battlecruisers of major battleship classes as they were in a specific year (camouflage, prior or after a modernization, etc.). The majority of them served during WWII with very few exceptions such as the España class battleship Jaime I (n.28) or the HMS Vanguard (n.2) that was commissioned in 1946 (I modified the original image because instead of Vanguard, it had the Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleship, a ship that was never completed and commissioned). Somebody can notice also that not all the battleship classes are included, such examples are the Conte di Cavour class of Italy, the New Mexico and Pennsylvania classes of the United States of America, the Ise class of Japan and many more classes of the United Kingdom. For a brief overview of all the battleship classes (ironclads, pre-dreadnoughts, dreadnoughts, battleships and fast battleships), including those that were never commissioned, you can read here (I noticed quickly that some classes are missing though such as the Espana class). About the individual battleships within the classes you can find them here where they are listed alphabetically. Please notice that the silhouettes have not been created by me but by anonymous users in the web (if somebody found an author or the authors please send me a message!)

FLEETS #6 and HISTORY #1: Soviet Navy after WWII - A very unusual fleet!

Written by D-Mitch

Kuybyshev of Chapayev class cruisers at Sevastopol on Navy Day,
25 July 1954. On the background you can see Novorossiysk,
the former Italian battleship Giulio Cesare

The following image depicts the major surface combatants of Soviet Union some years after the end of World War II. Of the warships that are illustrated we can assume that the image presents the Soviet Union fleet in the beginning of the '50s, possibly 1950-2. Why "An unusual fleet"? Because this fleet, with the exception of some Soviet-built classes, it consists of Italian, German, Japanese and Finnish warships that were transferred to Soviet Union as war reparations! In order to describe better the situation of Soviet Navy after WWII towards the establishment of a naval superpower based on indigenous projects, I did not just upload the fleet-image as I did in the previous "Fleets" but I aimed to provide some details about the classes and the vessels of that time and especially their fate during their service under the Soviets. Thus, I have copied information related to the classes from wikipedia and I have slightly modified the text as my purpose in this article was not to make an analysis of a class or a vessel based on bibliography as I do in other naval analyses but to provide simple information about the Soviet naval vessels of the 1950s. I would like to mention also that most of the photos were obtained from the excellent forum.worldofwarships.com.

FLEETS #4: Italian Navy, German Navy, Russian Navy and Japanese Navy in WWII

The following images illustrate the most important classes of warships which were in service with the navies of Italy, Germany, Russia and Japan during the World War II. More posts will follow for your collection of current naval fleets but also of fleets from the past.

Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in  WWII

Click to enlarge and save the image to view the details - Italian Navy in WWII