Alligator class landing ship

Project 1171 (Tapir) class landing ship (NATO reporting name: Alligator) is a class of Soviet / Russian general purpose, beachable amphibious transport docks (Soviet classification: Large landing ship, Russian: БДК, большой десантный корабль).

Design of Project 1171 was initiated in 1959 by the Navy, while a similar dual-purpose Project 1173 was ordered by the civilian Ministry of Shipping. Eventually both designs were merged under Project 1171 umbrella, and the resulting ship was a compromise between military (speed, survivability) and civil (fuel economy) objectives. Design team produced four different configurations of the ship. The Navy selected the most powerful and fastest option, which was also least fuel-efficient, and the civil Ministry withdrew from the project completely. All production ships were made for the Navy and never operated on shipping lines.

A total of 14 vessels were completed between 1964 and 1975; all were retired in 1992–1995. As of September, 2008, two vessels, currently named Orsk and Saratov are in active service with the 197th Brigade of Landing Ships in the Russian Black Sea Fleet. As of March 2014, the Saratov and Nikolay Filchenkov are in service with the 197th Brigade of Landing Ships in the Black Sea Fleet, the Nikolay Vilkov is in service with the 100th Brigade of Landing Ships in the Russian Pacific Fleet, and the Orsk is currently inactive and undergoing refits.

Saratov (БДК-65) was launched in July 1964, commissioned in 1966 as Voronezhsky Komsomolets. As a leader ship of a formation, it lacked the habitable troops compartments installed on other ships of the class. Saratov was stationed in Donuzlav (Black Sea Fleet) until the Union collapsed and then remained mothballed in Odessa until 1994. The ship was reported in active operations in 2000 and later.

Orsk (БДК-69) was launched and commissioned in 1968 as Nikolay Obekov. It served a total of 11 campaigns in Indian and Atlantic oceans and the Mediterranean. Later, under Russian flag, it carried peacekeeping troops and materials to Yugoslavia, Adjaria and Abkhazia. As of 2014 it is inactive and undergoing a refit.

Some vessels were used in the 2008 South Ossetia war.