Missile Loadouts: Project 61 "Kashin" (1962-2020)
After the end of World War II, it was discovered that the pre-war types of naval ships were largely obsolete and did not reflect the new reality of warfare. Experiments eventually led to a new breed of large multirole missile ships in the 1950’s. Among United States and her allies these ships were known as “frigates” or “DLG’s,” but in the Soviet Union they were dubbed “large antisubmarine ships” (большие противолодочные корабли). The first of these large antisubmarine ships was Project 61, known to NATO as the Kashin -class cruisers. However, the early members of this class were actually commissioned as “patrol ships” (сторожевых корабли) before their classification was changed in 1966. Commissioned between 1962 and 1970, the 20 ships of Project 61 were contemporaries of the 20 American frigates of the Leahy , Bainbridge , Belknap , and Truxtun classes . Measuring 144 meters in length, Project 61 was significantly smaller than the 162 or 172 meters of the American ships. However