Soviet destroyer Opytny

Opytny in Leningrad
History
Soviet Union
NameSergo Ordzhonikidze
NamesakeSergo Ordzhonikidze
Ordered2nd Five-Year Plan
BuilderShipyard No. 190 (Zhdanov), Leningrad
Yard number500
Laid down26 June 1935
Launched8 December 1935
Commissioned11 September 1941
Out of serviceMarch 1944
RenamedOpytny (Russian: Опытный, lit.'Experimental'), 25 September 1940
Stricken10 February 1953
Nickname(s)Golden Fish or Golden 500
FateScrapped, 1953
General characteristics (as built)
TypeDestroyer
Displacement1,707 long tons (1,734 t) (normal)
Length113.5 m (372 ft 5 in) (o/a)
Beam10.2 m (33 ft 6 in)
Draft4.6 m (15 ft 1 in) (deep load)
Installed power
Propulsion2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines
Speed35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range1,370 nmi (2,540 km; 1,580 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement262
Armament

Opytny (Russian: Опытный, lit.'Experimental') was the only member of her class of destroyers built for the Soviet Navy during the 1930s. The Soviet designation for her class was Project 45. She was originally named Sergo Ordzhonikidze and was the first Soviet destroyer to be indigenously designed.[1] Renamed Opytny in 1940, the ship was intended as a prototype for future Soviet destroyers.

Plagued with severe problems with her boilers, the ship was not suited for fleet operations, but the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) forced the Navy to accept Opytny several months later. Assigned to the Baltic Fleet in August, the ship was limited to service as a floating battery to provide naval gunfire support for the Red Army during the Siege of Leningrad with frequent periods in reserve or under repair. Opytny was no longer useful after the end of the siege and she was taken out of service in March 1944. A proposal to turn her into a training ship was rejected after the end of World War II and the ship was scrapped in 1953.

  1. ^ Budzbon, p. 331