Built 1980-1986 | In commission 1980? - present day | |
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Builders Yantar Yard Kaliningrad Operators Soviet Navy, Russian Navy Preceded by Primor'ye class surveillance ship Succeeded by Vishnaya class intelligence ship | ||
The Balzam class is the NATO reporting name for a class of Intelligence collection ships built for the Soviet Navy in the 1980s. These ships are also known as the Lira class. The Soviet designation was Project 1826.
Contents
Design and role
The ships were designed to gather SIGINT and COMINT electronic intelligence via an extensive array of sensors. The data could be transmitted to shore via satellite link antennas housed in two large radomes. They were the first Soviet AGIs to be armed, carrying one AK-630 CIWS gun system and Strela anti-aircraft missiles.
The last remaining Balzam class ship in active service is 344 ft in length, mounting a Medium Frequency sonar, High Frequency dipping sonar, Electronic warfare gear to include jammers, interception devices and code-breaking software: these ships were revolutionary when built in that they carried not only intercept and direction-finding electronics but also the necessary computing power to feed raw signal data into on-board information processing computers.
An Underway replenishment system was installed, as were two four-round Strela-2M (SA-N-5 Grail) IR-Guided SAM's and a single six-barrelled 30 mm gun. The weapons rely on a single remote Kolonka pedestal director.
Ships
Four ships were built by Yantar shipyard, Kaliningrad.
One ship, the SSV 571 Belomore, is in service; of the other three units, the Lira was decommissioned in 1998, the Azia and Pribaltica are in reserve.
Operations
A Balzam-class ship was most recently deployed to monitor RIMPAC 2016 exercises off of Hawaii.