Project 66 cruisers - the project of the Soviet Navy heavy cruisers , developed in 1947 - 1954 . According to a peculiar Soviet classification, it was called the middle cruiser, since it occupied an intermediate place between the light cruisers of project 68 bis and the heavy (actually linear ) cruisers of project 82 . Designed with the expectation of achieving superiority over the American Des Moines heavy cruisers. By the beginning of the 1950s, development had reached an impasse, was rejected by the fleet and discontinued at the stage of the adjusted draft design.
| Project 66 cruisers | |
|---|---|
| Project | |
| A country |
|
| Scheduled | 10 |
| Built | 0 |
| Main characteristics | |
| Displacement | 26,230 tons - standard 28,510 tons - normal 30 750 tons - full |
| Length | 252.5 m |
| Width | 25.7 m |
| Draft | 8.35 m |
| Reservation | Board - 155 mm Upper deck - 50 mm Lower deck - 70–90 mm Conning tower - 30-210 mm GK towers - 135-300 mm UK towers - 25 mm |
| Engines | three turbo gear units |
| Power | 210 000 l. from. |
| Mover | 3 |
| Speed | 34.5 knots (63.9 km / h ) |
| Sailing range | 5000 nautical miles on the move 18 knots |
| Autonomy of swimming | 30 days |
| Crew | 1428 people |
| Armament | |
| Artillery | 3 × 3 - 220 mm SM-40 |
| Flak | 4 × 2 - 130 mm BL-109A 6 × 4 - 45 mm SM-20-ZIF 6 × 4 - 25 mm BL-120 [1] |
Content
- 1 Design History
- 2 Project Evaluation
- 3 notes
- 4 Literature
Design History
The idea of building cruisers close to those of foreign “Washington” cruisers was put forward in 1941 after the heavy cruiser “Luttsov” of the “Admiral Hipper” type , received the name “Petropavlovsk” from the USSR Navy, was brought to Leningrad in tow. ] . In May 1941, the People's Commissar and Commander of the Navy of the USSR N. G. Kuznetsov approved the assignment for the development of the Project 82 cruiser, armed with 203-mm guns and close in tactical and technical characteristics to Lyuttsov. During the Great Patriotic War, the development of the project was continued by the forces of TsKB-17 . In 1943, the specialists of this organization proposed arming the new cruiser with increased caliber guns - 210-230 mm, which, in their opinion, would provide the ship with fire superiority over foreign cruisers with 203 mm artillery [2] .
Project Evaluation
The project 66 cruiser was the last major artillery ship developed in the USSR. Conceived as a Soviet response to the American Des Moines-class heavy cruisers, it turned out to be almost 10,000 tons of greater displacement. However, he did not have a decisive advantage over his American opponent. Superiority in firing range of the main caliber could not be realized due to the imperfection of fire control systems, and when approaching, the advantage in firepower was gained by a more rapid-fire American cruiser [3] . The size of the project 66 did not correspond to its real strike power, despite the fact that in size it was approaching the much more powerful ships of the project 82 [4] . The cruiser’s anti-aircraft weapons were also regarded as not reflecting even limited air strikes [5] . But the ship turned out to be very expensive, its cost in serial construction was estimated at 900 million Soviet rubles [6] . For comparison, the project 82 cruiser cost 1168 million rubles, the project 68 bis cruiser - 322 million rubles [7] .
There is an opinion that the project 66 cruisers should have acted as part of the promising aircraft carrier formations of the Soviet fleet, increasing their combat stability . However, for this, its anti-aircraft weapons had to be seriously strengthened, which would entail a further increase in size and cost. The construction of aircraft carriers and cruisers of project 66 would be carried out at the same plants, which made the simultaneous implementation of the program unlikely [8] . The lead ship of project 66, even under the most favorable circumstances, could not be put into operation earlier than 1958 [7] . But in the early 1950s, the leadership of the USSR Navy began to pin its hopes on new types of weapons, in particular anti-ship missiles [9] . As a result, the development of the project was discontinued, which put an end to the development of large artillery ships of the fleet.
Notes
- ↑ Vasiliev A.M., Morin A.B. Middle cruiser Admiral N.G. Kuznetsova. Project 66. - St. Petersburg: Gangut, 2013 .-- S. 39, 43. - ISBN 978-5-904180-72-0 .
- ↑ 1 2 Shirokorad A. B. Fleet, which destroyed Khrushchev. - M: AST, 2004 .-- S. 293. - ISBN 5-17-021113-9 .
- ↑ Vasiliev A.M., Morin A.B. Middle cruiser Admiral N.G. Kuznetsova. Project 66. - S. 52.
- ↑ Vasiliev A.M., Morin A.B. Middle cruiser Admiral N.G. Kuznetsova. Project 66. - S. 53.
- ↑ Vasiliev A.M., Morin A.B. Middle cruiser Admiral N.G. Kuznetsova. Project 56. - S. 50.
- ↑ Vasiliev A.M., Morin A.B. Middle cruiser Admiral N.G. Kuznetsova. Project 66. - S. 50.
- ↑ 1 2 Vasiliev A.M., Morin A.B. Middle cruiser Admiral N.G. Kuznetsova. Project 66. - S. 51.
- ↑ Vasiliev A.M., Morin A.B. Middle cruiser Admiral N.G. Kuznetsova. Project 66. - S. 62.
- ↑ Kuzin V.P., Nikolsky V.I. Navy of the USSR 1945-1991. - SPb. : Historical Maritime Society, 1996. - S. 113.
Literature
- Vasiliev A.M., Morin A.B. Middle cruiser Admiral N.G. Kuznetsova. Project 66. - Midel-frame. - St. Petersburg: Gangut, 2013 .-- ISBN 978-5-904180-72-0 .