Uragan-class guard ships (рус: Сторожевой корабль тип Ураган) were built for the Soviet Navy as small patrol and escort ships in four batches with slightly different specifications. Their official Soviet designations were Projects 2, 4 and 39, but they were nicknamed the "Bad Weather Flotilla" by Soviet sailors by virtue of their meteorological names. Eighteen were built from 1927 to 1938 and those of the Baltic and Northern Fleets participated in the 1939–1940 Winter War against Finland. The Uragan class served during World War II in all four of the Soviet Fleets, including Black Sea and Pacific Fleets. Four of those ships assigned to the Baltic Fleet were lost during the war, including two during the Soviet evacuation of Tallinn in late 1941.
The surviving ships of the Baltic Fleet participated in the Siege of Leningrad and the subsequent Leningrad–Novgorod offensive in 1944.
Design and description By the mid-1920s the Soviet Navy wanted to replace the few old Tsarist torpedo boats still in service. The initial requirement was based on that of the later batches of the German Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, p. 12 for a ship not to exceed , armed with two old guns, three torpedo tubes and could carry mines as necessary to serve as fleet escorts and conduct torpedo attacks. It was to be powered by four Beardmore diesel engines imported from the United Kingdom, but this plan was thwarted by Soviet financial support for the miners during the 1926 United Kingdom general strike. The preliminary designs had to be revised for steam propulsion, a task greatly complicated by the break in Soviet ship construction between 1917 and 1924 when no ships, naval or commercial, had been built and many experienced naval architects had either fled the country, found new jobs, or were politically suspect and not allowed to work. It proved impossible to work within the 300-ton limit with steam turbines and the tonnage limit was increased to when the Navy approved the preliminary design on 26 November 1926. Detailed design of the ship and its power plant was assigned to the Zhandov Shipyard in Leningrad. They proposed two alternative steam power plants; one low-pressure design and the other with more pressure. The Navy decided against the high-pressure design and ordered studies evaluating "a three-shaft combined power plant with 2-shaft geared turbines plus 1-shaft diesel engine for cruising, diesel-electric, and diesel."Budzbon & Lemachko, pp. 141, 143 These were rejected and the original two-shaft turbine power plant was selected with an output of to reach a speed of . At the same time it became clear that the new 350-ton limit was also inadequate and would be needed. The twelfth design was approved on 23 June 1927Budzbon & Lemachko, pp. 140–143 as the Project 1. The designation was changed to Project 2 in the 1930s when the failure of the design to reach its specified speed became apparent; the more prestigious flotilla leaders then being designed became the Type 1.
General characteristics The Uragan-class ships displaced at standard load and at full load. They were long overall, had a beam of and a draft of .Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, p. 11 The ships had 14 main watertight compartments and a double bottom only underneath the machinery and boiler rooms. The riveted hull used the typical Russian framing method of longitudinal framing for the bulk of the hull and transverse framing for the ends.Budzbon & Lemachko, p. 143 The wartime crews of the ships numbered 107–114.
The Uragans proved to be heavier than designed and had only a meter (3 ft 4 in) of freeboard aft, which made their main deck almost permanently wet in any kind of sea. Their stability was also less than optimum as they were top-heavy with a metacentric height of only and they were almost slower than designed. In their intended role they "were complete failures – they were too slow for use as torpedo boats and of no value as ASW vessels because of their lack of depth-charge handling equipment and underwater detection devices".Budzbon & Lemachko, pp. 143, 199
Propulsion The Uragan-class ships were powered by two Parsons geared steam turbines, each driving one propeller shaft using steam provided by a pair of three-drum boilers that operated at a pressure of and a temperature of . The amount of power produced varied, and thus the performance, between each of the four sub-classes. The turbines of the Series I ships developed a total of and gave a speed in service of , except for the two ships built at Zavod No. 198 (A. Marti) ( and ) which produced only and a speed of . Maximum speeds reached during sea trials were considerably higher, but could not be sustained for very long and were not representative of the ship's performance in service. For example, the lead ship of Series I, , attained during her trials for a brief time. The Series II ships reached a speed of from while the ships of the two later series were faster from . The ships carried a maximum of of fuel oil that gave the Series I ships a range of at ; the Series II ships had a range of at while the Series III and IV ships could steam for at a speed of .Budzbon, Radziemski & Twardowski, pp. 11–13
A pair of 30 kW turbogenerators supplied the 115-volt electrical systems of the Uragans. A single 11 kW auxiliary electrical generator was fitted that was powered by an Izhora-type kerosene engine.Budzbon & Lemachko, p. 144
Armament and fire control The main armament of the Uragan-class guard ships consisted of a pair of Tsarist-era 60-caliber Pattern 1911 guns, one mount forward and aft of the superstructure. Each gun had a magazine with a capacity of two hundred rounds underneath it, although only the one on the forecastle had a hoist; the ammunition for the rear mount had to be hand-carried. The Series IV ships carried a pair of B-24BM guns in lieu of the 102 mm guns.
Anti-aircraft defense was intended to be provided by four single 11-K AA guns, these were modified versions of the British 2-pounder () guns, but deteriorating relations with the United Kingdom prevented the Soviets from buying any of these weapons. The first Series I ships were initially completed without any anti-aircraft armament, but a pair of Maxim machine guns were fitted shortly afterwards.Hill, p. 21
A rotating triple mount for torpedoes was fitted between the funnels. Up to 20 mines or depth charges could be carried using mine rails mounted on the main deck. No sonar was fitted so dropping depth charges was largely an act of futility. Two K-1 minesweeping paravanes were fitted on the main deck after the design was finalized.
One rangefinder was mounted above the open bridge and a searchlight was fitted on a small platform abaft the rear funnel.
Construction A total of eighteen Uragan-class guard ships were planned, but Soviet shipbuilding capacity was inadequate to begin them all at once. Series I was intended as a group of six to be built at the Zhandov Shipyard in Leningrad and Series II was to consist of two ships constructed at the Marti Shipyard in Nikolayev to that shipyard's variant of the basic design which received the designation of Project 4. The construction of this class was to prove to be a series of problems including design flaws, lack of shipbuilding capacity and a poorly designed and built power plant that was delivered two years after the first ships were launched.Budzbon & Lemachko, pp. 144–145, 198–199
Prefabrication of the hulls began even before the final design was approved and proved to be a major mistake as the strength analysis of the longitudinal joints in the hull proved to be severely flawed and construction was suspended until the end of November 1927 when new blueprints were issued. No slipways were available at the Zhandov Yard until three were finished in May 1928, having only begun construction at the end of 1927, and the assembly of the hulls of the first three Series I ships began shortly afterwards. The other three slipways were completed by July and the other three ships began assembly as the slipways were finished.Budzbon & Lemachko, pp. 144–145 The hull of Uragan was completed within ten weeks after the keel was laid, although the other ships were built a more normal pace. "Possibly she was built to gain as much experience as possible."Budzbon & Lemachko, p. 145
Although Uragan was launched on 4 September 1928 she didn't receive her power plant for another almost another two years. The ability of Soviet industry to deliver precision machinery like turbine gears was greatly overestimated by the Navy and the gears for the first eight ships had to be imported from Germany to have any chance of completion in a timely manner. The first boiler design proved unsatisfactory during preliminary testing in late 1928 and early 1929 and a second design was tested later in 1929 and into 1930. Even this new design wasn't entirely satisfactory as it proved to be impossible to force its output above the specified limits, but it was approved for use in the Uragans when an improved model would have taken at least another year put into production.Budzbon & Lemachko, pp. 144, 198
Uragan was accepted on 16 December 1930 for sea trials. She proved to be heavier than estimated and had only a of freeboard aft, which made her main deck very wet in almost any kind of moderate sea. She was also top-heavy which reduced her stability and sea-keeping abilities. She was proved capable of during her trials, but was her normal top speed. This was primarily because her boilers had been designed only deliver enough steam for her turbines, leaving nothing was in reserve to power her steam-driven auxiliary machinery. As her turbines drew 5–6% more steam than originally designed and her auxiliary machinery had to be powered, there simply was not enough steam to power her turbines at their designed output. For trials they produced , but a more realistic output was in normal use. Uragan was finally commissioned on 12 September 1931, two years after her intended delivery date, becoming the first Soviet-built surface warship.
After Uragan was commissioned four more ships were laid down for service in the Far East, two each at Leningrad and Nikolayev. They were built in sections and transported by the end of 1933 to the Dalzavod Shipyard in Vladivostok for assembly. The four Series III ships were laid down in 1934, three at the Zhandov Yard and one at the Marti Yard. One ship from each shipyard were sent to the Far East. Sources differ if these ships were simply repeats of the Series I ships or if they had been improved in detail and known as Project 39.Breyer, p. 187 These changes were fairly minor, other than some improvements to the turbines that it was hoped would increase speed by a knot or so. The two ships of Series IV definitely had the improvements and were built at Leningrad for service with the Baltic Fleet.Budzbon & Lemachko, p. 201
Modifications The minesweeping paravanes were fitted on each ship shortly after completion and further contributed to their overweight problem. By the mid-1930s two semi-automatic 45 mm anti-aircraft gun (21-K) and three or four 12.7 mm DShK AA machine guns were being fitted. Normally the 45 mm guns were mounted fore and aft of the rear 4 inch gun with two machine guns flanking the latter, although some ships mounted one 45 mm gun in front of the forward 4-inch gun with one machine gun on each side of the bridge. As each ship was refitted for the first time its bridge was enclosed. The rear mast was removed during the war.