- Yes
- No
TL;DR:
Coastal vessel, extremely fast hydrofoil gunboat with fast-firing twin 23mm autocannons.
History:
In 1954, at Leningrad’s Central Design Bureau 19, work began on a high-speed hydrofoil torpedo boat, called Project 125. In 1959 the first 2 prototypes of this design were built at the Morye Plant in Feodosia. The ships were armed with 2 twin 23mm aircraft cannons, the same type used on the Tu-16 and Tu-95, and were powered by a combination diesel and gas turbine system, where the diesels drove the propellers and afterburning gas turbines provided thrust directly from the sides. During testing, they were found to suffer from intense vibrations when exceeding 40 knots in light waves and that the gas turbine engines already started rusting. As such, the ships weren’t accepted into service with the Navy, but the Border Guard showed interest in the design and a variant, Project 125A was developed. The new design was slightly larger, used a slightly modified hydrofoil design to increase stability, carried a dipping sonar, and traded its torpedoes for depth charges.
16 of these ships were built for the Border Guard from 1964-1967, 9 for the Baltic and 7 for the Black Sea, serving until the 1980s when they were replaced with more modern ships, such as its successor the Project 133. Supposedly these ships were able to drastically decrease the number of border incidents, and were liked by their crews for being simple to maintain and the reliability of its diesels. It also seems the ships were refitted with some extra radar equipment while in service.
Specifications:
Armament:
2x2 23mm AN-23 (4000 rounds?)
2 DCR (4 Depth Charges)Displacement:
56.4 tons standard
64.7 tons fullLength: 26.1m
Beam: 5.3m
Draft: 1.27m
Propulsion: 2 M-503G diesel engines, 8000 hp, driving 2 propellers, 2 D-20P gas turbines, 20000 hp, direct exhaust
Speed: 62 knots (114.8 km/h)
Range: 300 nmi (at 45 knots)
Crew: 17
Systems:
Ksenon-125 FCR
MR-102 Radar
Images:
Sources:
http://russianships.info/eng/borderguard/project_125a.htm
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNRussian_23mm_AN-23.php
https://www.navypedia.org/ships/russia/ru_cf_tk75.htm
http://russ-flot.narod.ru/x-0013_pr-125A.htm
Images: