Ognevoy-class destroyer

The destroyer Ognevoy
Class overview
Name:	Ognevoy class (Project 30)
Operators:	Soviet Navy, Bulgarian Navy
Preceded by:	Soobrazitelnyy-class
Succeeded by:	Skoryy-class
Built:	1938-48
In service:	1944-1960
Planned:	24
Completed:	11
Cancelled:	13
Retired:	11
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	2240 tons standard 2950 tons full load
Length:	117 m (383 ft 10 in)
Beam:	11.6 m (38 ft 1 in)
Draught:	4.2 m (13 ft 9 in)
Propulsion:	2 shaft geared turbines, 3 boilers 60,000 hp (45,000 kW)
Speed:	37 kn (69 km/h; 43 mph)
Range:	1,700 nmi (3,100 km; 2,000 mi) at 16 kn (30 km/h; 18 mph)
Complement:	250
Armament:	4 x 130 mm (5 in) guns (2 B-2LM twin turrets) 2 × 85 mm (3 in) guns 6 × 37 mm (1 in) AA guns 2 × triple 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes 80 mines

The Ognevoy-class destroyers were a series of destroyers built for the Soviet Navy during and immediately after World War II. The Soviet designation was Project 30 and Project 30K.

The Type 7 destroyers proved to have a less than adequate seaworthiness for Soviet conditions. The Soviets decided to build a larger ship with main armament in enclosed turrets. These ships proved popular with the Soviet Navy and formed the basis for the post-war Skoryy class or Project 30bis.

Design

The specification (TTZ in Russian) for these ships was issued by the Naval staff in November 1937. The design work was done by Zhdanov Yard in Leningrad under the leadership of A. Yunovidova and approved by the government in 1939.

Hull strength was significantly increased and the hull was enlarged compared to the Project 7 ships. Longitudinal framing was used and hull plating was thicker than the Project 7 ships. Hull height was increased giving extra free board.

The machinery consisted of two boiler rooms and two engine rooms similar to the Project 7U destroyers but in less cramped spaces. Electricity generation capacity was increased to two 100 kW (130 hp) plants and two 50 kW (67 hp) plants. An alternative design Project 30A using super-heated high pressure machinery based on American designs was projected but not built.

The armament was housed in two enclosed splinter-proof and weatherproof turrets in 'A' and 'Y' positions. This was a significant advance over the open mountings used in the Project 7 ships. The B-2LM turrets were introduced in the Tashkent class and proven successful in service but had no anti-aircraft capability. Anti-aircraft armament comprised two 85 mm (3 in) guns in a twin mounting in 'X' position and six 37 mm (1.5 in) guns in single mountings. The ships also carried two sets of quadruple torpedo tubes and 50 mines.

The ships were fitted with air warning, surface search and gunnery control radars and sonar after the war.

Ships

Project 30

24 ships were ordered in 1938-40 but the programme was disrupted by the German Invasion in 1941. The ships being built in Nikolayev were demolished before launch or evacuated incomplete while those built in other yards were suspended for the duration of the conflict.

• Ognevoy (Огневой, Fiery) - built by 61 Kommunar Yard, Nikolayev - hull evacuated to Poti and completed in 1943 the turrets were salvaged from the wreck of a Tashkent-class destroyer. She was scrapped in the 1960s

Project 30K

Some of the intact ships were completed after the war to a modified design (K for korrektirovany - corrected).^[1]

References

Citations

Sources

• M.J Whitley, Destroyers of World War 2, 1988 Cassell Publishing ISBN 1-85409-521-8
• Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922-1946. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-83170-303-2.