Pr.50 Remake

And then the exports...
(and thanks for the compliments in meanwhile)

Where as the overal role of SKR and specially in its archaic classic torpedo-boat/2nd class coastal destroyer layout begun to be questioned in the soviet navy during the building progress way trough the 1950's, the rather rudimentary and basic capabilities and moderate size offered perfect export product for smaller navies, where such ships could easily fill the "prestige ship" role and work in the all proposed and planned roles instead of large minesweepers and actuall destroyers as in Soviet fleet. Its therefore no suprise that All the warsaw pact naval powers recieved them ...well, except Albanians who were too poor and small, Romanians who didn't focus on navy at this point and Poles whom prefered destroyers, thus leaving Bulgarians and East Germans.

[ img ]

Three ships were operated by Bulgaria, where here the longest surviving Druzki is shown. Western naval journals (convay and Jane's) Often mentions Strela MANPAD system fitted, but Ive managed not to find any photographic evidence of these, so I left them out. a pair of RBU1200 were fitted in place of the mousetrap behind the "b" position. Bulgarian ships were among the longest surviving with Druzki reaching the 1990's dispite complete obsolence at that point.

[ img ]

East Germans operated totally 4 ships of the Pr.50 class, classed a Kustenschutzschiffe (KSS) and the first pair was handed to the volkspolizei see, a nominally civil police organisation before the creation of the East German armed forces, in 1956, and they were called 1-61 and 1-62 .They were both of the original construction. Two more ships, with the main class features were delivered in 1959

[ img ]

When the Volksmarine was formed in early 1960's, they recieved Names and reconstruction along with their sisters. 1-62 became Karl Marx. At some point of her career she recieved two pairs of RBU-1200 fitted side-by side in the same place as RBU-2500 in their soviet sisters and similar (but not same) type of extension of the side gangways to support them as in Pr.50PLO. The two later pair vessels were both decommisioned in the late 1960s becouse one caugth fire and another had her engines damaged in a storm, and the first pair served a decade longer before beeing replaced with Pr.1159 class vessels which were specially designed as export to fill the place of Pr.50 size vessels in customer fleets. (...but thats different story naturally)

[ img ]

China recieved Four vessels... in kits, which were assembled in Chinese shipyards and completed to the standard layout. In 1970s, they were modernised alongside with the newly build 053 class frigates with pair of chinese made Termit copies in place of TT set. (analog to the Pr.7 class destroyers so fitted during the same time) In Chinese pretext, they were called as pr.6601 class and They formed basis of the 001 class frigates which were rather archaic and poor copy with merchantile diesels and unfortunate layout changes, and later, with more succesfull 053 (Jianghu) class ships which I drew some time ago.

[ img ]

Then the most important

part of the Pr.50 saga, the Two finnish ones, Uusimaa and Hämeenmaa
[ img ]

(I could post an almost essay of this subject, but i try to be brief)
After WWII, a search and creation of the New Finnish fleet begun, slowly and hampered with lack of funds and political (And sometimes even military) Interest. After various evaluations and concept, the navy quite reasonably became to conclusion, that the new Fleet should be build around fast gunnery armed vessels of destroyer-frigate-escort size. This eventually lead into the Turunmaa class gunboats (corvettes) after 20 years of work, but in meantime the fleet was in paralous state without any combatant vessels and therefore without much military value. As the post-war economical situation improved, alongside (and in consequence of) improving relations to Soviet Union, it became possible to purchase military equipment rather cheaply in bilateral trade agreements (military goods were usually surpluss to bigger civilian trade agreements) and therefore the Cold war finnish military became predominatily Soviet equipped in terms of most expensive and advanced military gear. Navy recieved its own little share of this in 1964, when among the offered goods were Pr.50 class SKRs which suited the fleet needs quite well for a gunnery orientated fast escort ships (with 28 kts they were sofar fastest ship size combatants in Finland). Two units were brougth and Named Uusimaa and Hämeenmaa. Together with the Nuoli Class FAC(gun) they formed the core of the Finnish fleet.

[ img ]

In 1971 onwards they were modernised, with the embhasis on AA defenses, nominally the oddball 37mm weapons were replaced with bofors 40mm/L70 which had became almost main weapon of the fleet, and the ubiquitous Ak230 twin 30mm installation in the extreme bow that gave the ships their striking appeareance and appeal. Also two Madsen 20mm guns were fitted in the place of the mousetrap behind the B-position gun.
[ img ]

When the two Turunmaa class gunboats entered the fleet, the small and restricted manpower pool could not man all the four large ship at the same time during peacetime, so the Pr.50's sailed by turns each year until in 1979 Uusimaa was decommisioned and Hämeenmaa was refitted as Minelayer, loosing her TTs and receiving extra cabin in front of the wheelhouse. She sailed until 1986

And last, but not least, since total of 8 vessels sailed in Indonesian Navy as result of rather massive arming program by the Soviets, which along side Pr-68bis class cruiser and Pr30bis class destroyers included 8 Pr.50 class vessels. As with all other Soviet supplied weapons and equipment, the severed ties since 1965 resulted complete embargo on Soviet side and thus no spares or supplies were available for the Indonesians and their soviet made fleet rabidly rusted away, with Nuku of the Pr.50 class reaching the first years of 1980s as last examble, and completes this thread with its nice green radar
[ img ]

Shipbucket

Who is online