"Bora" - a hovercraft missile ship: description, specifications and reviews

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

The existence of the RKVP "Bora" was not spread for a long time, it was surrounded by a veil of complete secrecy. As, however, many military facilities in Russia. Bora is a ship that simply has no analogues in the whole world. Lightness, maneuverability, its speed are so high that torpedoes and even homing missiles are not able to catch up with it. The Black Sea Fleet repeatedly conducted exercises, where the crew of the RKVP perfectly coped with the assigned tasks, leading successful battles with the ships of conditional opponents.

The idea of building a ship

The first thoughts about the creation of such a ship arose during the Second World War, when in 1942 the Germans broke through to the Caucasus. In Moscow, the council discussed the project of the rocket designer Chelomey. His proposal is to install torpedo launchers on missile boats to hit large targets.enemy. Everyone agreed that the project was indeed promising, but was temporarily postponed.

Only after the war, on the orders of Stalin, in 1949, the Almaz Design Bureau was created. The employees were tasked with developing designs for hovercraft, it was a secret, completely new topic. The goal was to create ultra-fast missile boats. The brainchild of this project in the future was the Bora, a hovercraft.

Role of CB Almaz

Thus, in the Leningrad design bureau "Almaz" ideas began to emerge - to mount rocket launchers on small speedboats. All over the world, the Russian innovation was treated with restraint and skepticism. But the six-day war of 1967 turned the world upside down, after an Egyptian boat (made in the USSR) sent an Israeli destroyer to the bottom with a single missile salvo. A new era in the Navy has begun. In the 70s, the engineers of the Almaz Design Bureau under the leadership of V. I. Korolev began to put forward ideas for the creation of light catamaran boats on air cushions. This increased the speed of movement, maneuverability, invulnerability. The task is an unexpected appearance, impact and the same quick disappearance. This is how the small hovercraft Bora was born.

First trials

For the first time, the Bora RKVP was launched in 1988, but the difficult political and economic situation did not allow immediate testing. The Bora ship showed its first successes in 1991. In the area of \u200b\u200bSnake Island, on the Black Sea, the first firing took place, they caused a serious commotion amongforeign intelligence. This has never been seen before in the Navy. The new Russian military ship, moving at a speed of 40 knots, simultaneously launched missiles. A missile salvo was prepared in just 30 seconds. During the first tests, four Mosquito missiles completely destroyed a decommissioned patrol boat. Naturally, such volleys are capable of destroying even large ships, including aircraft carriers.

The small ship "Bora" began to be called the "Sea Destroyer", because its task was to decapitate the flotilla, that is, to deliver a devastating blow to the main ship of the enemy squadron. After that, at a speed exceeding the speed of any sea vessel, disappear from sight.

In 1991, the first hovercraft appeared on the Black Sea Fleet - it was the Bora.

Ship characteristics

The ship has a displacement of 1050 tons. The dimensions of the Bora are as follows: full width - 17.2 m, length - 65.6 m. Vessel draft - 3.3 m, 1 m is added when the superchargers are operating. The maximum speed is 55 knots. Range at a speed of 12 knots - 2500 miles, at 45 knots - 800 miles. The power plant includes: 2 M10-1 gas turbines with a capacity of 36 thousand horsepower, two M-511A diesel engines with a capacity of 20 thousand horsepower and two M-504 diesel engines with a capacity of 6.6 thousand horsepower. The armament includes the Moskit anti-ship missile launcher - 8 3M80 missiles, 20 Osa-M air defense missiles, AK-176 - 76-mm gun mount, AK-630 - 30-mm gun mount. The Bora small rocket ship has a crew of 68.

Small and daring

Two narrow buildings (length - 64 m, width - 18 m) are covered by a platform. There is an elastic screen in front of the machine. Even if the wave height reaches two meters, a powerful engine of 60 horsepower allows you to reach speeds of up to 55 knots. With a wave height of 3.5 meters, the speed is 40 knots. An economical move is provided by two diesel engines. The high speed allows the ship to avoid homing missiles and evade torpedoes.

When creating the RKVP, the already acquired experience of the Design Bureau and the shipbuilding industry was borrowed in the construction of landing ships of the Zubr, Jeyran type.

What is the uniqueness of the RKVP? Bora is a ship that has a hydrodynamic platform that can be easily transformed. The propulsion system has 36 options for use. "Bora" is both a catamaran that regulates speed up to 20 knots, and at the same time a ship capable of developing a speed of over 50 knots. RKVP has a wide range of movement both in emergency and in normal condition. During the years of operation, there was no case that the ship entered the port in tow. In addition, it is able to go even with the propellers turned off due to the supercharger engines when air is exhausted from the air cushion.

RCC "Mosquito"

On board the Bora (ship) has the deadliest Mosquito anti-ship missiles. More about them. The striking force of these missiles combined is capable of destroying the middle class of ships and even cruisers. The explosive in 3M80 "Mosquito" has a mass equal to150 kilograms. Launch range - from 10 to 90 kilometers. Starting, the rocket soars up, making a slide, then descends to a height of 20 meters, when approaching the target it reaches 7 meters above the waves and crashes into the ship's hull. Semi-armor-piercing part and huge kinetic energy allow you to break through any obstacle. A powerful explosion occurs inside. Even if the enemy uses a radio countermeasure system, the combined control system allows you to achieve high hit accuracy up to 99%.

Bora in the Turkish port of Sinop

In 2013 in Turkey, at the activation of the Blackseafor ChVMG, the Russian Federation was represented by Bora, a hovercraft missile ship. Warships of Romania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine took part in sixty exercises and trainings. What was the emphasis? Repelling air attack squads, escorting behind trawls, repelling attacks of small targets, organizing communications, joint maneuvering, controlling the movement of a merchant ship, rescuing and searching for victims at sea.

The crew of the ship "Bora" showed their best side. All actions under the command of Captain 2nd Rank Trankovsky were carried out smoothly, clearly, in an organized manner - this is confirmed by the admiring reviews of all those who watched the exercises.

In Artek

Chernomorsk sailors support the traditions established since Soviet times. At the closing of the shift, the Bora, a ship that has become the pride of our fleet, arrived at the Artek International Center. After completing combat missions, the RKVP "Bora" embarked on a raid in a children's center.

OnHundreds of children boarded the ship, special excursions were held for them. The acquaintance was very informative, especially for those who graduated from the children's marine flotilla at Artek. Here the solemn graduation of cadets took place.

All the guys were delighted with this event and left their positive feedback after visiting the ship.

The traditional bonfire at the end of the shift at the Artek International Camp was lit from a fire taken from a capsule launched from the ship Bora.

Bora and Samoom

Telling about the ship "Bora" hovercraft, it is impossible not to mention his brother. This is RKVP "Samum". Their stories are similar. "Sumum" is a little younger. "Bora" and "Samum" are ships of the same type, belonging to the class of missile hovercraft.

The Bora ship was laid down first in Zelenodolsk near Kazan in 1984, at the Krasny Metallist shipyard. It was launched in 1987, and in 1991 it was included in the Black Sea Fleet.

Sumum has a richer movement history. The RKVP was laid down in 1991 and launched in 1992. Inland waterway was transferred to the Black Sea. In 1992 - to Kerch, in 1993 - to Sevastopol. For technical reasons, in the same year it was again sent to Zelenodolsk to the manufacturing plant. In September 1994 he went to the B altic. There, since 1996, he was tested in B altiysk. It was officially introduced into the B altic Fleet in 2000. Only in 2002, the Samum RKVP was relocated toBlack Sea Fleet. Became part of the 41st brigade of missile boats of the Black Sea Fleet.

The guys who served on these warships remember the years spent in the navy for a long time, leave grateful reviews. Someone claims that the service brought up the will and tempered the character, others forever remember military exercises. And, of course, everyone speaks warmly about the cohesion in the team, friendship and comradely support. It is on such warships that brotherhood is born.

Where did the names "Bora" and "Sumum" come from

For the Soviet fleet, such names as "Bora" and "Samum" at first glance look incomprehensible and exotic. Indeed, for the most part, in those days, all significant objects were named after some heroic personalities or significant events, in honor of the CPSU congresses, rallies, Komsomol conferences.

But it is this line of ships that has received such unusual names. Back in the 30s of the last century, patrol ships (in fact, destroyers) began to appear in the fleet, which bore storm names, for example, "Hurricane". The sailors then called them "the division of inclement weather." The successors of this series were RTOs "Storm", "Shkval", "Storm" of project 1234. And so the project 1239 rocket hovercraft continued the tradition. Designer Korolev suggested naming them after sudden destructive winds. "Bora" - Black Sea squally wind coming from the north. Especially capricious is the "Novorossiysk forest". "Samum" is the Arabic name for the hot African wind that brings strong sandstorms, covering everything in its path. SoThus, two Russian ships are named after strong winds, they cut sea waters at the same speed, eliminating obstacles on the way.

Major milestones

Despite its youth, the Bora missile ship has carried out more than a hundred artillery and rocket firings during its existence. He was repeatedly declared the best RKVP in his unit, won various prizes in all types of training. It fully justifies its name, because "Bora" is a powerful impulse that brings renewal.

• In June 2002, there were numerous approvals at the state level between Ukraine and Russia, after which the missile hovercraft, named after the winds "Bora" and "Samum", were attached to one brigade of surface ships of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation
• November 2006. The model of the ship "Bora" was exhibited in Jakarta at the Indodefence exhibition.
• 2008. Became the current repair.
• March 2009. The elements of the course task K-2 have been worked out.
• May 2013. First port visit in Istanbul. Participation in IDEF-2013.
• August 2013. Successful participation in the activation and exercises of the Black Sea VMG "Blackseafor".
• 2015 year. Participation in the hero-city of Sevastopol in the naval parade on the Day of the Navy.
• Summer 2015. The current repair of the ship has been very successful.
• Summer 2016. RKVP took part in the Sevastopol parade on the Day of the NavySamoom.