Domestic artillery and missile ships of small displacement. Patrol boats "Tarantula Border Ship 205 project

Well, finally, the author’s cherished childhood dream has come true - I’m reaching the real border! And not just like that, but at sea - on the border ship "PSKR 205 P" which, according to American military codes, sounds rather menacing - "Tarantula".

If you chatter in dry statutory language, then the border Russian Federation- this is a line and a vertical plane passing along this line that define the limits of state territory (land, water, subsoil and airspace); in other words, the spatial limit of the action of the state sovereignty of the Russian Federation.

How I got to the sea border guards is a separate detective story, but now there’s no time to philosophize: it’s marked on our commander’s watch exact time exit from Vysotsk, where since 1940 (order of the NKVD of the USSR dated May 11) a formation of border ships has been located to protect the water area of ​​the Vyborg and Finnish gulfs:

Launch the three main ones! For tanks - to the tank! The dress code is stormy! Weigh anchor!

Alexander Viktorovich Lykov, who is also a comrade chief - Mr. Commander of the Tarantula, who is taking over to guard the state border of Russia in economic region No. 32, as the Gulf of Finland, familiar to St. Petersburg's ears, is called in ordinary official parlance, is cockily telling this from the navigating bridge with the usual commands of cap-three. . The sailors in orange rescue bibs began to shush at once, the heels of their uniform boots rattled on the gray decks, and our ship of the 3rd rank, with a displacement of 240 tons, having doused the berths of Transund with an abundant puff of thick and tasty smoke from three diesel engines at once, rolled off into the sea-ocean for at least two weeks. Tranzund is the pre-Bolshevik name for Vysotsk, where today only 1,100 inhabitants live, and exactly half of them belong to the humanoids of the army race, although in the pre-revolutionary “far away” more than 36,000 peaceful Finnish subjects of the Russian crown lived harmlessly here.

In addition to these roaring 5000-horsepower 56-cylinder monsters (7 blocks of 8 cylinders, arranged in a “star” - a diesel engine is extremely compact and powerful, there are no analogues in the world), rotating three solid propellers on a borderline van-station; in the other compartment there are two smaller diesel engines - 136 hp. s., these are generators.

Experts call our venerable vessel - project No. 205, built in 1958 - "tumbler" for its exceptional seaworthiness, because the "Tarantula" cannot capsize under any circumstances or under any waves (I really want to believe it!). Americans are by no means fans of wasting compliments, and even consider this project one of the achievements of Soviet shipbuilding (authored by Anton Pavlovich Gorodenko, not without the participation of Evgeny Ivanovich Yukhnin). After all, over 35 years, about 40 different ship models were launched on the basis of this hull!

This Viktorych meant the ships passing by, which must definitely hit the Russian marine patrol with their ethereal brow, otherwise...

Most law-abiding citizens of the North-West of Russia will never even realize that very close to their five-story buildings and log houses, wearily gazing into the lustful fogs of the Gulf of Finland, there is a real state border. In the summer, without any ulterior motives, you go out on some punt and plunge your hot bodies into the waters just west of Zelenogorsk, and you are already an almost ready violator of this border, unless, of course, there is a special border crimson papier or a sovereign position worthy of this case. Perhaps you are not aware that all access to our local “ocean” at a distance of more than 3 km from the coastline is strictly regulated by a decree of the governor Leningrad region No. 261 of August 13, 1999 “On the border zone and border regime.” For example, small yachts and pleasure boats without special border clearance can only go to the Tolbukhin lighthouse line, while cruising boats can go to the western border of the Kronstadt fortress zone (Sista-Palkino line).

According to regulatory documents, for the passage of all fishing, sports and other small vessels going beyond the line of the islands of Kozliny, Sommers, Moshchny, Cape Kurgalsky, a corridor is established, limited by lines connecting points with the following geographical coordinates:

• A. Northern passage: from the south - 60°05’06" N and 27°45’05" E. d.; from the north - 60°08’00" N and 27°43’09" E. d.
• B. Southern Passage: from the east - 59°56’03" N and 28°01’02" E. d.; from the west - 59°56’04" N.

Crossing these lines and going outside the established corridor is strictly prohibited except in cases of disaster or stormy weather. In these zones, going to sea at night is also contraindicated; however, overnight stays on the water and on islands outside designated areas are also prohibited.

And when you observe seemingly significant ship activity in the bay every day, then know that the owners of modern galleons are not doing their best to flop back and forth, but turned to the border guards for permission at least 24 hours before leaving. For you and me, this is the Gulf of Finland - just a place for Sunday amusements, but for border guards it is already an exclusive “economic zone of the Russian Federation”. The absolute masters here are the guys in camouflage from the Federal Border Service (FBS), to which three years ago all rights to protect biological resources were transferred.

But there is something to control - the territory on the shores of the bay is literally crammed with fishing artels, fishing collective farms and all kinds of joint-stock companies (for example, JSC Petrotral from Primorsk has 22 fishing vessels under arms, the Progress collective farm has 18). Poachers do not rest either, living freely in the labyrinths of imperfect laws and minimum wage impunity (in a normal month, loosening 30,000 rubles into their pockets is a trifle for them).

Border guards in all centuries were, it seems, not an army; after all, even the nostalgically mundane army disciplinary regulations began to operate in the local dioceses only in 1887 ( military ranks appeared two years earlier), and the camouflaged good fellows in full height reported only to the Minister of Finance. In 1920, they were shoved into a special department of the Cheka, freeing them from customs supervision.

You know well about the future from many television productions and feature films.

Today, the FPS, created by presidential decree of December 30, 1993, is a separate department with its own director, which structurally has nothing to do with its KGB progenitor.

I grew up in an officer's family and suffered a lot in my youth through military camps, observing the candied army oubism. In addition, in recent years From the bluish TV screens and magazine lightning, we were all generously fed desserts, where everything that was connected with the army was affectionately called decadence and corruption.

It was with such a rich ideological bag that I voluntarily stepped up to guard the maritime state border in November 2001. Now imagine the author’s amazement when, neither on the ship nor at the coastal bases, I never tasted either pearl, or twice-boiled sauerkraut, or put cartilage in aluminum plate, which usually the Ukrainian brothers carefully place instead of meat in oiled cans of pork stew.

And to start the buffet, I will firmly say that both the sailors and officers from the 205th Border Guard ate from the same boiler, and so excellently that I involuntarily began to remember a pioneer childhood worthy of the stories of Anatoly Rybakov. At 8 am and 10 pm there was hot tea with rolls and a substantial spread, and at noon and six o'clock there was a full lunch and dinner. A dispensary, and nothing more.

They bake their own bread with a boron crust at Tarantula. It’s truly amazing how 20-year-old conscripts can mix such delicious food in shipboard conditions. And there was no full-time cook on the ship; usually the helmsman Altyn from Bashkiria did the cooking.

With us, anyone is a jack of all trades, after all, it’s their second year,” the crew elder, 43-year-old boatswain Yuri Dmitrievich, smiled through his mustache. - First of all, the rice will be boiled, then their potatoes will burn, they will take it and throw it overboard. It’s okay, they’ll sit on the norm for two or three days, and they’ll instantly start respecting the product!

On the "Tarantula" 5 officers, 2 midshipmen and 2 contract soldiers went to sea (as required on ships of the third rank according to the state), the rest at the evening roll call were listed as ordinary conscript sailors.

In the evenings, the officers dreamed out loud about retirement, although the eldest - assigned navigator Andryukha Vorobyov - is only 29. He is assigned because there are not enough servicemen, and he was pulled from another ship to this exit.

I only get 100 dollars a month, the girls I know laugh...

Then I remembered the words of the brigade commander, captain of the first rank Alexander Sytnik: in 2000, out of 20 young lieutenants, six immediately resigned into lack of work. After all, either children of military personnel remain in the troops, or people come from places lost on the map, where care military school is equated by villagers to enlistment in the cosmonaut corps.

On the Tarantula I instantly had a bosom buddy - sailor Denis Batrakov, I kept bumping into him, it seemed as if he was on watch for 24 hours straight everywhere at the same time - in the galley, in the engine room, and at the helm in stormy weather.

The last event was especially memorable, because between Gogland (here at the highest point of the Leningrad region, the Northern Gogland lighthouse, engineer Popov once tested his radio invention, and in last war the Fritz had a Luftwaffe sanatorium) and our powerful boat caught such a bump on its beak that the small-sized first mate Borya immediately began nervously fiddling with his brown rosary on a greasy ribbon, which immediately revealed him as a Muslim Aga-Baba Nurutdinovich, a Lak by nationality, albeit a hereditary one sailor

- A degree to the left on the compass. There are two degrees to the rhumb. Full speed ahead for the cars! - Commander Lykov confidently peered into the sticky crowd of the November night, and in the meantime, chairs, maps, compasses and rulers fluttered around the wheelhouse, like carefree evening crickets, which, in the mischief of a girl’s flirtation, jumped off the chart’s table without asking. Of course, it was not yet a hurricane (on the wind scale it is over 29 m/s), but even 21 m/s forces anyone off duty to wander as deep as possible and parallel to the events taking place. According to my observations, except for the commander and the boatswain, all the ship’s border guards “died” that evening. Although they continued to serve, outwardly, however, they looked more like the shadow of Hamlet’s father than the defenders of the Motherland.

Only the whitish cat Stepanych, who chose the diesel control center for a serene life, did not attach any importance to what was happening. He is calm and confident, he knows that there is nowhere to run from a full life - you can’t spoil yourself in civilian life, and there are plenty of Sharikovs in every gateway, so you have to endure the storm.

Take a deep breath when the ship falls into the hole! - Commander Lykov tried to teach the St. Petersburg correspondent some lessons. - And that’s all business...

I laughed it off for an hour and a half, naively hoping that seasickness would bypass my person as a distant cordon. Meanwhile, the experienced command staff quietly crawled into their holes. (“I haven’t bullied like this since I was a cadet, probably ten years,” navigator Vorobiev quietly said after the chatter).

And the Baltic went on a spree in earnest, we even got started only with the help of steel cables, because the thick rope ends tore that night faster than the threads of the Krasnoe Znamya hosiery factory. In addition, on the rusty dock, we smashed our fender beam into trash, not to mention the cabin and galley storm-burum, when everything that was not nailed down lay crumpled and broken in disarray on the floor. On the navigation bridge, the rocking tore off the radio station and firmly jammed it between the radar and the commander's chair.

You ungrateful creature, you couldn’t convey it! - The bosun’s scolding speeches are already coming from the lower deck. This means that one of the young Marimans, in Cezan-like naivety and in halftones, decorated the corridor with gastric juices. I never heard anything more rude than this spiritual clap on the ship. Once, however, they promised to throw the messenger Seryoga overboard with his things when he messed up something in the Japanese video. But this is just a joke. Without a video recorder on the ship, it’s a complete mess. Of course, there is also a library where even religious literature is replete with bright script, but the command staff clearly preferred cartoons or the latest KVNs to the formally frowning Bible.

I didn’t find any hazing on the ship either. But, as they would say in the Brezhnev years, we have a complete international gathering on board: first mate Borya is a Lak from Dagestan, head of the PUD Valera is a Belarusian, midshipman Rasul is a Karachay, helmsman Altyn is a Bashkir, and the boatswain is generally Ukrainian. And no one shared anything, no one poked me in the face with a dirty rag in anger, I couldn’t even believe that we were coexisting so peacefully in a troubled time of self-determination and the collapse of a single community of people, which at party congresses was proudly called the “Soviet people.”

Maybe because at the border people are engaged in a specific, necessary task, the goals and means are common, and the products in the galley are the same. This good feeling of family never left me until last day. This is what always happens when a stranger appears in a friendly team and is forced to show off only according to the laws written here. And whether they are bad or noble is not for you to decide!

What a blessing that the stories about everyday life in the army in recent years turned out to be far from the truth!

Today is boatswain Davydenko’s birthday, and on the occasion, we took a little sip of it this morning, dear, but now, with the pumping, we unanimously give the perfectly baked meat and cakes away, away - to the elements and the pop-eyed fish that always loved to feed themselves in the Kingisepp district. All large islands in our “Finnish” fortified area were administratively allocated to Kingisepp. Kingisepp himself, although he was an Estonian communist, but, fortunately, did not manage to screw anything up here. Otherwise we would have lost our Canary archipelago in the Leningrad region.

Of the large land bubble islands - Gogland, Moshchny, Maly, Seskar and both Tyuters. The bosses here are sailors, border guards and civilian lighthouse philosophers, who, according to the statutory rank, already belong to the Hydrographic Service of the Navy.

Our “Tarantula” is hiding in a secluded cove on Moshchny Island, where there is a pier and a rusted trophy floating dock. According to naval instructions, a ship of this class can seek shelter even with a wind of 12 m/s, but we have been on the examination table for the third day of at least 17, the nasty rain is lashing, the Baltic unfriendly curls up with endless herds of frontal waves-rams. This always happens in the fall, only Alexander Sergeevich is missing to tint everything around with Boldino palettes.

Together with my kind colleagues, three more small vessels are crushing their sides in Okolnaya Bay - the gray Vemaef hydrograph, the cargo border guard "Kanin" (not a very successful project, originally from Severodvinsk; the servicemen said that this slow-moving punt with a maximum of 9.5 knots, in a storm can swing even up to 50°) and the fishing MRTK from Lomonosov. For warriors, a year at sea goes by in about a year and a half, so they can relax, but fishermen don’t need downtime, especially since they are not allowed to go ashore by border regulations. All the same, we meticulously checked them, and today, as already mentioned, one of the tasks of the Federal Border Guard Service is precisely to suppress the illegal fishing of biological resources of “internal sea ​​waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone and continental shelf RF". On average, up to 700 of our own and more than 300 foreign vessels fish every day in this space throughout Russia. The border guards employ more than 300 inspectors of state marine inspections. We also have one on our vessel - this is Igor Shevrygin. For fishermen, the presence of a fishery spectrum is not it’s good; he obsessively pushes for licenses and demands documents for fishing, with all the meticulous afterwords - after all, 15 years of work in the bay.

They're tormented by checks, a bunch of new IDs are required every year, and that costs at least 50 bucks! - Gennady Starovoitov, the captain of the "mrteshka", complains with pathos, taking out documents and account books from the boxes.

Of course, he is disingenuous, however, as befits all fishermen in the world, this is their profession! After all, Peter the Great already demanded in decree No. 1669: “Trade in fish is a primordially thieves’ business, and therefore the salary should be given to them meagerly. Yes, hang one a year, so that it would not be a shame for others!” Captain Starovoitov's papers seem to be all right, although there is no catch on board - everything has been handed over to the bins of the homeland. In November, "MRTK 0706", owned by the Progress fish farm, trawls daily for herring and sprat, and, according to Shevrygin, the ratio of accounting data in the catch log (70% sprat and 30% herring) does not correspond to reality: there should be herring, at least all 50%. It’s just that the fishing limit for this species is running out, so they replace it in the reports with sprat.

They did not draw up a protocol - the violation cannot be proven, and there is no mood for fiscal attacks. In addition, since 2001, there have been absolutely no economic incentives for active work - all fines and amounts for damage to caught fish, received in the accounts of the border control as a result of the application of sanctions to violators, ultimately go into the budget without a trace. Although in most countries of the world, coast guard services are actively encouraged precisely at the expense of funds taken from law-abiding people. And here, under the Tsar-Father, a distinguished border guard received up to 60% of the fine collected. For example, for the detention of a fugitive or a tramp they paid 3 rubles, for a state criminal - 50, and for a particularly important skinhead - 100.

As the head of the maritime inspection, Alexey Gonik, said, “today there is a tendency towards a decrease in indicators in our region. If in 2000 308 protocols were drawn up in the amount of 132,000 rubles, then in almost 11 months of 2001 we barely reached the figure of 100,000.” .

On Moshchny I felt like I was in a Kremlin state reserve. What about Jurmala and Finnish Turku! You won’t see such beauty in the travel club named after Yu. Senkevich. There are endless virgin sandy beaches with flocks of unfrightened swans calmly huddling not far from the shore before a long winter flight, and everywhere low pine trees spreading their ballet branches towards the cocky revelers - the western winds. What fishing is here, what mushrooms and berries!

Pike, perch, bream, whitefish, Baltic salmon. And the memories of dried kilogram roach on the table of the island sailors will fill at least ten Aksakov pages with the Red Bavaria beer. It’s even surprising that none of the modern, post-perestroika barmaleys have yet built a government gatehouse or hotel on the island, because the Kurgolovsky Peninsula is just a stone’s throw away (from Sosnovy Bor it’s no more than an hour’s ride by motorboat with a “thirty”).

Under the Finns, 139 families lived on Moshchnoye (Lavensaari), there were two shops, a pharmacy, a hospital, a school, a church, a fish processing plant and even a marine terminal. Today there is: a cemetery, the family of the lighthouse keeper Gromov (led by his heavily made-up wife Lyuba), a small Navy garrison and an FPS outpost under the command of senior officer Igor Vetrov. And countless hordes of cockroaches.

Border guard guys from 40-meter towers track ships passing along the fairways and report their side numbers to where they should be. (Having climbed onto one of them, I discovered that attempts to reach St. Petersburg via the vaunted GSM were futile; only Delta worked normally on the island.)

Their task is to control that everything in the bay is “the way.” However, no serious incidents have occurred since 1995, when the border ship Almaz caught brave overseas merchants smuggling alcohol. With the disappearance of communist ideology, the ideological component of the border service was forever lost on the pages of reports and detective stories. Nobody anymore drags forbidden leaflets and glossy magazines with naked busty women to one sixth of the Earth - we ourselves have countless beauties, just open your pocket. Sometimes someone gets stranded while drunk, that's all the flaws of the modern border.

Today there are no border violations as such,” senior mate Borya, aka Aga Baba, leisurely loads over evening tea, “there are only errors in the paperwork. Another thing is the fishermen who are trawling the Baltic from Vyborg to Ivangorod - come and see the light, dear comrade!

Control of fishing games is also complicated by the fact that fishing permits are issued by Sevzapribvod, and the maritime inspection of the Federal Border Guard Service has no idea in advance who, how much and what may be allowed.

It is simply surprising that such a rich and promising region from a recreational point of view is not used at all by the residents of the city and region - only certain motley personalities sometimes penetrate through secret paths into these Canary Islands of regional subordination. These are simply heavenly places for motorboaters and yachtsmen and, of course, for fans of salmon trolling. According to my data, the Russian quota for salmon fishing in the Gulf of Finland is not fully used, only five or six vessels fish in longlines, although sport fishing, as foreign scientific Socrates have long established, brings their capitalist treasury at least eight times more dividends.

It is difficult to calculate how many active recreation lovers voluntarily donate their feasible monetary tribute to the economy of individual localities (for example, salmon fishermen from St. Petersburg pour about $200,000 annually into the Kola Peninsula alone) and foreign resorts. And is it necessary?

Our faithful "Tarantula", it seems, has finally firmly anchored on the "Turtle" bank - not far from the main fairway. We “serve the border”; we have no time for crossword puzzles.

Border patrol boats of the Tarantul class, known in NATO classification as Stenka, occupy a special place in the history of the Russian fleet. Project 205P (borderline) inherited the best qualities of its predecessors: from sea “hunters” of submarines - full speed, and from patrol ships - autonomy and seaworthiness.

From the late 60s to the end of the 80s, the naval units of the border troops of the KGB of the USSR received large number small but seriously armed ships capable of carrying out both long-term patrols in the maritime economic zone and searching for and destroying enemy submarines.

In Russia, the first specialized border patrol boats (PSKR) appeared in 1904, when the New York company Flint&K° proposed to build a series of coastal defense boats for the Russian Imperial Navy by the famous American engineer Lewis Nixon.

The author of the project emphasized the main advantage of these 35-ton boats with a shallow draft and high speed in the presence of the latest, at that time, gasoline engines, the advantage of which over steam engines was the production of more power in comparison with the latter, as well as a smaller number of crew. A total of 9 Nixon boats were built by order of the Coastal Defense Committee to protect seaports and minefields.

The next most successful border boats were the “” submarines of the MO-4 type and the “big hunters” of Project 122A, developed in the 30s. These patrol boats performed well in combat during the Great Patriotic War. Patriotic War. However, the emergence of new technical and strategic concepts of warfare at sea no longer met the requirements of modern times. Therefore, in the first post-war ten-year program of 1946-1955, the Soviet Union began the construction of adjusted projects and the creation of new transitional types of ships.

Back in 1944, Gorky TsKB-51 began developing an improved large patrol boat of Project 122bis with enhanced weapons, more advanced radar and hydroacoustic stations, as well as an increased cruising range.

To replace the small hunters of the MO-4 type, Project 183P and 199 were developed based on the hull and power plant of the Project 183 Bolshevik torpedo boat. Between 1954 and 1955, fifty-two patrol boats were built at Plant No. 5 in Leningrad.

However, anti-submarine officers did not like the Project 199 boats. With a high full speed, these ships had a very short cruising range at low speeds, which was a serious drawback, since the search for submarines was carried out precisely at these speeds. This imperfection was a consequence of the adoption for MO-4 of the planing contours of the Project 183 torpedo boat hull. This and other flaws led to the limited construction of these patrol boats with their subsequent transfer to naval units of the border troops. The first post-war specially designed sea submarine hunters were Project 201 boats.

A further step in the development of Project 201 was the creation of a small anti-submarine ship of Project 204 with an original propulsion system. But the practice of creating border boats based on sea hunters, large hunters and patrol boats, formed since the pre-war years, was not implemented in Project 204. The naval units of the border troops needed a special ship with improved characteristics.

border patrol boat project 205

Based on the hull of the very successful Project 205 missile boat, a border patrol boat of Project 205P “Tarantul” was created. The tactical and technical specifications for the development of the Project 205P PSKR were issued by the Almaz design bureau in 1963. The border boat was created in a hull with a power plant for a Project 205 missile boat and differed from the latter in the composition of its weapons and a more developed superstructure. Instead of P-15 anti-ship cruise missiles, four single-tube 400 mm torpedo tubes for firing anti-submarine torpedoes and two bomb releasers were installed. Two GAS “Hercules” and “Bronze” were added to the radio-technical weapons. In total, according to the 205P project, from 1967 to 1981, 117 boats were built by the naval units of the Border Troops and the USSR Navy. Also, border boats of the Tarantul type of Project 205PE were exported to Cuba and Cambodia.

The hull of the border boat is made of steel and has special contour shapes in the bow and stern. As practice has shown, this contributed to the improvement of seaworthiness, and also provided the ability to use the weapon in sea conditions of up to 4 points and a wave height of 2 meters at speeds of up to 30 knots - without restrictions. The superstructure is made of aluminum-magnesium alloy. To make the superstructure more durable, its outer walls are made in corrugated form, the cavities of which are filled with non-flammable and non-toxic heat and sound insulating materials. To ensure that the hull of the border boat does not deform when entering a large wave, a so-called “stretchable seam” was used in its stern.

The power plant is based on three high-speed diesel engines of the M-504B type, four-stroke, supercharged and reversible freewheels with built-in gearboxes, each operating on its own shaft. The power of one motor is 5000 hp. at 2000 rpm of the crankshaft. In terms of their characteristics, M-504 diesel engines have no equal, both among domestic manufacturers and foreign models. The power plant is controlled by the Orion-2C system. The preparation time for the main engines for start-up is 1 minute. Development time full revolutions in emergency mode from the “ship stopped” position - about two minutes. The boat is controlled automatically and manually using an emergency drive to the afterpeak.

The auxiliary equipment of the patrol boat includes life-saving equipment - inflatable life rafts. They are standardly located on the left side of the superstructure and can accommodate the entire crew of the boat. In addition, a Project 1397 speedboat is available for inspection teams.

The main armament of the Project 205P border boat is anti-submarine 400 mm torpedoes fired from four 400 mm single-tube torpedo tubes that are not aimed.

In addition to torpedo weapons, Tarantula-class boats can be armed with two removable bomb dispensers, each of which can accept up to 6 depth charges weighing 160 kg each. In addition, the Project 205P PSKR is armed with two AK-230 artillery mounts of 30 mm caliber with remote guidance. These complexes are located in the diametrical plane at the bow and stern of the ship, which provides the greatest horizontal firing angles. The rate of fire of one machine gun is at least 1000 rounds per minute. Power: continuous, belt, from a magazine with a capacity of 500 shots per barrel. Firing control is carried out by the MP-104 “Vimpel” system - in automatic and manual mode from the sighting column.

The Baklan radar station, which was put into service in 1959, provides illumination of the underwater situation. The detection range of air targets is 300 km, surface targets - up to 35 km. The navigation situation is provided by the Xenon radar with a target detection range of up to 10 km. Hydroacoustic weapons are represented on the Project 205P boat by the Hercules hydroacoustic antenna, the detection range of underwater targets in noise direction finding modes is from 2 to 3.5 km, and the Bronze lowering antenna with a detection range of underwater targets from 2 to 8 km.

Due to their large number, the patrol boats of the Tarantul project received a number of modifications. In 1970, the AK-225 artillery boat was built at the Primorsky Plant in Leningrad as an experiment under Project 205 PE (patrol, escort). This boat had a modified superstructure and navigation bridge; the ship was armed with an AK-725 and AK-630 artillery mount. In 1977, instead of the AK-725, an experimental AK-157 artillery mount was installed, which showed insufficient artillery fire power during ship tests, and therefore did not go into serial construction.

The artillery boat “Batumi” of the Georgian Navy, received after the division of the USSR Navy, can also be called a modification.

The patrol boat "Tarantul" had dismantled AK-230 artillery guns. In their place, two 37 mm 70-K machine guns from the Great Patriotic War were installed.

border patrol boat "Nikolaev"

In April 1987, a border patrol ship with serial number 210 was laid down at the Primorsky shipbuilding plant of the Almaz production association. Exactly a year later, on April 10, 1988, the border patrol boat was launched and after completion of construction in June 1988 at the Krasnogorsk measuring station line successfully passed sea trials. The date of signing the acceptance certificate is June 28, 1988. On July 14, 1988, the flag of the border troops of the KGB of the USSR was raised on PSKR-722, after which from July 26 to August 20, the boat made the transition along inland waterways from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, where it was included in the 5th separate brigade patrol ships of the KGB Border Troops stationed in Sevastopol, Balaklava Bay. From this day after the surrender of all course tasks, PSKR-722 took over the protection of the economic zone of the USSR in the northern part of the Black Sea. Over the years maritime service PSKR has repeatedly stopped poaching fish.

August 8, 1995 with the aim of reviving maritime traditions by order of the chairman State Committee- Commander of the Border Troops of Ukraine No. 314 PSKR-722 was named “Nikolaev”. Also on account of the border patrol boat “Nikolaev” was the rescue of the fishing seiner “Aragon”. In February 2000, maritime border guards left their deployment site in a matter of minutes and managed to rescue and tow a fishing seiner, which was only 50 meters away from the rocks. None of the fishermen were injured. Combat watch PSKR "Nikolaev" continues.

Speaking about the Tarantula project, their commanders unanimously express a positive assessment of these ships. Everyone notes high reliability, controllability, seaworthiness and good living conditions. Of course, these patrol boats were examples of advanced technology of their time. In fact, the ship with a small displacement was armed with a small anti-submarine ship of Project 204 and therefore could safely take on an enemy submarine. The border boat is successfully equipped with an air defense system, due to which ships of this project are quite capable of escorting small convoys, landing and supporting tactical landings. The disadvantages of the 205P project include the weak range of the radar and sonar, as well as the short service life of the M-504 diesel engines. In conclusion, it should be noted that the Tarantula was conceived as a specialized ship to combat violators of the territorial waters of the USSR. As the experience of the services has shown, this goal has been achieved.

Rocket era

Since the late 1950s, global military shipbuilding has received a new impetus for development - guided cruise missiles (according to the old classification - rockets) appeared in the arsenal of fleets. In fact, it was a technical revolution. At that time, it seemed to many (both here and abroad) that equipping ships with missile weapons put an end to the development of large-caliber naval artillery, as well as surface and underwater structural protection. All newly designed ships in the USSR no longer had large-caliber artillery or armor.

In this regard, by 1958, we disbanded the Amur and Danube river flotillas(on the basis of the latter, a Brigade of river ships was created consisting of Black Sea Fleet) and all the BKAs in service were either handed over to the border guards or scrapped. True, at the same time, some “long-livers” of projects 1125 and 1124 continued to serve until the early 1970s.

It is believed that the USSR had undoubted primacy in the design and construction of a new class of small warships - missile boats. Moreover, their appearance turned out to be closely related to the saturation of the fleets of all countries with radar detection equipment, which cast doubt on the possibility of effective attacks by torpedo boats (TKA) - one of the main strike weapons in coastal zone. This required the ability to hit the enemy from distances exceeding their detection ranges by shipborne radar stations, and this could only be achieved through the use of shipborne cruise missiles from boats.

The development of the first domestic missile boat of Project 183-R was carried out at TsKB-5 (now TsMKB Almaz) on the basis of TKA pr.183. At the same time, due to the novelty of the development and the lack of analogues abroad, the designers had to carry out a lot of development and research work, including those related to the safety of personnel when launching missiles. Initially, in 1957, two experimental boats, Project 183-E, were built in Leningrad. On October 16 of the same year, the first launch of the P-15 anti-ship missile (ASM), specially designed for use from boats, took place in the Black Sea.

Officially, the first missile boat pr.183-R (in the west received the designation Komar class) was put into service in 1960. It was equipped with two hangar-type anti-ship missile launchers and a 25-mm twin 2M-3M assault rifle, with a displacement of 66.5 tons. In total, 58 RKA were built in the USSR at factories in Leningrad and Vladivostok from December 1959 to the end of 1965 (not counting the first two experimental ones) and another 54 were converted from TKA. Later, some of them were transferred to the fleets of the Warsaw Pact countries and some countries in Africa and Asia, and their mass production under license was launched in China and the DPRK.

Thus, a new subclass has appeared in our country - a missile boat, which by definition was a small combat ship, the main armament of which is missiles and designed to destroy enemy surface ships in coastal areas of the sea.

The world's first experience is also associated with missile boats pr.183-R combat use anti-ship missiles. During the Arab-Israeli War on October 1, 1967, the Israeli destroyer Eilat with a displacement of 1,710 tons was hit by four P-15 missiles launched from Egyptian Soviet-built Project 183-R missile boats. Of the 202 crew members of the Eilat, 47 were killed and 91 wounded. For naval specialists in many countries, this event was completely unexpected. However, it is worth noting that Israel was able to respond quickly, creating in 1967-68. missile boats of the "Saar" type (French-built) with small-sized anti-ship missiles "Gabriel" and, thus, became the second country to acquire its own missile boats. Later, in battles with the Arabs, Israeli boats showed great efficiency.

Meanwhile, the USSR began developing a special Project 205 rocket launcher (code “Tsunami”) with a more powerful missile armament (4 P-15 anti-ship missiles), increased seaworthiness and qualitatively improved characteristics. The design was carried out in the same TsKB-5, which accumulated a wealth of experience in the development of the RKA pr.183-R. Technical project The boat was completed in 1957, at the same time the P-15 missile system was being refined, which made it possible to further increase the firing range from 40 to 80 km. The displacement of the RKA was 172/209 tons, the full speed was 38.5 knots, the power of the three-shaft diesel power plant was 12,000 hp. For the first time in the domestic shipbuilding industry, remote-controlled 30-mm AK-230 assault rifles were installed. Head RKA R-36 project 205 ( Osa class) was built in Leningrad in 1960 (a year after the first RKA pr.183-R was put into service); in total, by 1973, 160 boats and two more experimental ones were built under this project.

Then the project was significantly modified for the P-15U missile, which had an increased range and a folding wing, thanks to which it was launched from a compact cylindrical container. The project received number 205-U, and in total in 1965-73. 32 boats were built on it. The displacement increased to 192/235 tons, a more powerful 15,000-horsepower power plant allowed it to reach speeds of up to 42 knots. Further construction was carried out for export according to project 205-ER until 1984. These boats were distinguished by the export execution of their main systems and weapons and had a displacement increased to 243 tons. A total of 87 units were built.

Project 205 and 205-U boats actively served in all four fleets of the USSR Navy. In 1990-94, most of them were written off, and only a few “survived” until 2000, after which they were also withdrawn from the fleet. IN different years RKA were exported to the following countries: Algeria: - 3 units, Angola - 4, Benin - 2, Bulgaria - 6, Vietnam - 4, East Germany - 15, Egypt - 17, India - 16, Iraq - 13, China - 7 units (the Chinese also established their own production), North Korea - 16, Cuba - 26, Libya - 12, Poland - 14, Romania - 6, North Yemen - 2 (delivered in 1982, returned in 1985), Syria - 16 (one was sunk in 1973 by the Israelis), Somalia - 2, Finland - 4, Ethiopia - 4, Yugoslavia - 10, South Yemen - 8. And after the collapse of the USSR, 1 RKA went to Azerbaijan and 3 to Latvia.

However, the story about the Project 205 missile boat will be incomplete without mentioning the border patrol ship (PSKR), created on its basis and which has become an equally widespread representative of artillery boats.

Since the pre-war years, our country has developed the practice of creating border patrol boats based on naval ships (usually small and large submarine hunters and patrol boats). Therefore, there was nothing unusual when TsKB-5 received TTZ in 1963 for the development of PSKR project 205-P (code “Tarantul”) with maximum use of the hull, engines and units from Project 205. By and large, the “border guard” differed from the RKA in the composition of its weapons and more developed superstructure. Instead of anti-ship missile launchers, it was equipped with four single-tube 400-mm torpedo tubes (TA) for firing anti-submarine torpedoes and two bomb releasers, and also added a lowered Sheksna hydroacoustic station (GAS). The lead PSKR-600 entered service in 1967 (received the designation in the West Stenka class). Total in the period 1967–1989. For the maritime border guard units of the KGB of the USSR, 130 ships of this project were built at factories in Leningrad and Vladivostok, while about twenty of them were transferred to the Navy, where they were already listed as artillery boats.

In addition to this, in 1984-85, an export series of 7 artillery boats of Project 02059 was built in Leningrad, which did not have torpedo tubes, bomb releasers and sonar. These ships were delivered to Cuba (3) and Cambodia (4). In addition, the AK-225 artillery boat of Project 205-PE, armed with 57 mm and 30 mm gun mounts, was developed and built on a trial basis. In 1991 it was decommissioned.

Table 3

Main tactical and technical characteristics of Soviet missile boats

Project (cipher)		205 (Tsunami)
Western designation	Komar class	Osa class	Osa-II class
Years of construction
Displacement, t: – standard – complete
Dimensions, m: - width – draft
	four-shaft, diesel	three-shaft, diesel	three-shaft, diesel
Power, hp			3 x 5000 or 3 x 6000
Speed, knots: – full speed – economic
Crew, people (including officers)
Armament	P-15 anti-ship missile launcher – 2x1 25 mm 2M-3M – 1x2	PU anti-ship missiles P-15 or P-15T – 4x1 30mm AK-230 – 2x2	PU anti-ship missiles P-15U – 4x1 30mm AK-230 – 2x2
	Radar "Rangout"	Radar "Rangout" Radar UAO* "Lynx"	Radar "Rangout" Radar UAO* "Lynx"

* Artillery fire control radar

Table 4

Main tactical and technical characteristics of Soviet post-war border patrol ships (artillery boats)

Project (cipher)	205-P (Tarantula)
Western designation	Stenka class	Stenka class
Years of construction
Displacement, t: – standard – complete
Dimensions, m: - width – draft
	three-shaft, diesel	three-shaft, diesel
Power, hp	3 x 4000 or 3 x 5000
Speed, knots: – full speed – economic
Cruising range, miles (at speed, knots)
Crew, people (including officers)
Armament	30mm AK-230 – 2x2 400 mm TA – 4 x 1 2 bomb releasers	30mm AK-230 – 2x2 (some were later replaced by 23 mm ZU-23 and 40 mm Bofors)
	Radar "Raid" OGAS "Sheksna" on some SOKS MI-110K GAS MG-11 (anti-sabotage) Radar station of UJSC "Lynx"	Radar "Xenon" Radar station of UJSC "Lynx"

OGAS - lowered hydroacoustic station

SOKS - station for detecting the thermal wake of submarines