Soviet cruiser Vasily Chapayev

Vasily Chapayev underway on 24 January 1983
History
Soviet Union
NameVasily Chapayev
NamesakeVasily Chapayev
BuilderZhdanov Shipyard
Laid down22 November 1973
Launched28 November 1974
Completed30 November 1976
Stricken30 June 1993
FateBroken up
General characteristics
Class and typeKresta II-class cruiser
Displacement
Length156.5 m (513.5 ft) (o/a)
Beam17.2 m (56.4 ft)
Draught5.96 m (19.6 ft)
Installed power
Propulsion
Speed34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph)
Range5,200 nmi (9,600 km; 6,000 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement343
Sensors and
processing systems
Armament
Aircraft carried1 Kamov Ka-25 'Hormone-A' helicopter
Aviation facilitiesHelicopter deck and hangar

Vasily Chapayev (Russian: Васи́лий Чапа́ев) was a Project 1134A Berkut A (NATO reporting name: 'Kresta II') class cruiser of the Soviet Navy named for the naval commander Vasily Chapayev. The Project 1134A vessels were envisaged as a counter to the attack and ballistic missile submarines operated by the members of NATO. To that end, they were equipped with two KT-106 quadruple launchers for eight 85R anti-submarine missiles in the URPK-3 Metel (NATO reporting name: SS-N-14 'Silex') system. The ninth ship of the class, Vasily Chapayev was launched in 1974 and served during the Cold War with the Pacific Fleet. Based at Vladivostok, the ship travelled extensively in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, visiting a large number of friendly ports in Angola, Ethiopia, India, Mozambique and Yemen. In 1978 and 1979, the vessel formed part of a Soviet flotilla, including the Project 68bis (NATO reporting name: 'Sverdlov'-class) cruiser Admiral Senyavin, that supported Vietnam in the aftermath of the Sino-Vietnamese War. In 1982, Vasily Chapayev was allocated to support the BOR-4 spaceplane programme, and two years later, the vessel participated in a search for a US Navy submarine that was suspected of being near the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. In 1985, the ship took part in a simulated joint operations attack on the US base at Pearl Harbor that involved the coordinated use of aircraft, ships and submarines. During the following year, the vessel took part in first joint exercises that involved both the Soviet and North Korean Navies. Taken out of active service in 1992, Vasily Chapayev was decommissioned and transferred to be broken up in 1993.


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