Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

T43 class minesweeper

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Succeeded by
  
T58 class minesweeper

In commission
  
1948?-1990?

Built
  
1948-1960?

T43-class minesweeper

Name
  
T43 class (Project 254)

Operators
  
Soviet Navy Albanian Naval Defense Forces Algerian National Navy Bulgarian Navy People's Liberation Army Navy Cuban Navy Egyptian Navy Ghana Navy Indonesian Navy Iraqi Navy Myanmar Navy Syrian Arab Navy

Preceded by
  
Fugas-class minesweeper

The T43 class were a group of minesweepers built for the Soviet Navy and Soviet allies in the 1950s and 1960s. The Soviet designation was Project 254.

Contents

Design

The design specification was issued in 1946 and the design was approved in 1948. The ships were built with steel hulls which were degaussed but no specific attempt was made to reduce electrical or acoustic signature. Several versions were produced:

  • Project 254 K (1952)- new MT-2 minesweeping gear, fitted with radar
  • Project 254 M (1955)- deep mechanical sweep, acoustic and magnetic sweeps, more modern ASW mortars, 25mm guns replace 12.7mm machine guns, variable-pitch propellers
  • Project 245 A (1957) - provided with NBC protection, with pressurised central space to keep out fall out
  • Project 254 PGR (sometimes referred to as Project 254 V) - KVN-50 class radar picket ship fitted with a Knife Rest or Big Net radar installation - 20 conversions from 1956
  • Project 258 (1956) - KVN-6 class radar picket ship fitted with Kaktus radar or later (Project 258M) modified with Rubka radar - 14 conversions from 1977
  • Project 513 - patrol boat for the Border Guard

    • Ships

    A total of 178 ships were built

  • Kamysh Borun yard Kerch built 61 ships
  • Polish yards built 12 ships
  • Izhora Leningrad built over 100
  • About 20 were built under licence in China

    • Exports

  • Albania - 2 ships (1960)
  • Algeria - 2 ships (1968)
  • Bulgaria - 3 ships (1953)
  • China - 4 ships 1955 (plus 20 built in China as the Type 010 class minesweeper)
  • Cuba - 3 ships
  • Egypt - 7 ships (1954-1957)
  • Ghana - 3 ships (1961-63)
  • Indonesia - 6 ships (1962)
  • Iraq - 2 ships 1969
  • Myanmar = 3 ships bought between 1965 and 1967, 4 donated between 1969 and 1972. 1 sunk in accident in Bay of Bengal in 1996, rest scrapped between 2006 and 2009.
  • Poland - built 12 ships under licence
  • Syria - 2 ships

    • One Syrian T-43 was sunk by the Israeli Navy during the Battle of Latakia. One or two Albanian and six Egyptian T-43s are active. All other T-43s are believed to have been retired.

    References

    T43-class minesweeper Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA