Kerch (Керчь) was a Kara-class missile cruiser of the Soviet and later Russian Navy. She served as part of the Black Sea Fleet. The ship was scrapped in 2020 following a large fire which broke out on 4 November 2014.[1]
 Kerch in Sevastopol Bay, 2009
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
  Russia | |
| Name | Kerch |
| Namesake | Hero City Kerch |
| Builder | 61 Communards Shipyard |
| Laid down | 30 April 1971 |
| Launched | 21 July 1972 |
| Commissioned | 25 December 1974 |
| Decommissioned | 15 February 2020 |
| Out of service | 4 November 2014 |
| Identification | 713 |
| Fate | Scrapped 14 April 2020 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | Kara-class cruiser |
| Displacement | 8,900 tons |
| Length | 173.4 m (568.9 ft) |
| Beam | 18.5 m (60.7 ft) |
| Draft | 5.4 m (17.7 ft) |
| Propulsion |
|
| Speed | 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) |
| Range | 9,000 nmi (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) |
| Complement | 425 |
| Armament |
|
| Aircraft carried | 1 Kamov Ka-25 |
History
editKerch was laid down in the Soviet Union on 30 April 1971, launched on 21 July 1972 and was commissioned in the Soviet Black Sea Fleet on 25 December 1974. The ship was constructed in the 61 Kommunar Shipyard at Nikolayev (Mykolaiv) on the Black Sea. She was in service with the Soviet Fleet until 1991, and then joined its successor, Russian Navy.
On 4 November 2014 a fire broke out aboard the ship during a routine servicing in Sevastopol. According to officials nobody was injured and the fire was contained to the ship's aft.[2] On April 24, 2020, the ship was towed away from her dock for the scrapyard.[3][4] Satellite images published in Google Earth show several stages of the ship's demolition in Inkerman (44°36′29″N 33°35′56″E / 44.608°N 33.599°E) between May and the end of 2020.
References
edit- ^ "Большой противолодочный корабль "Керчь" решили разрезать на металл". meta. 30 December 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
- ^ "Fire contained on board large submarine chaser Kerch in Russia's Sevastopol". TASS. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
- ^ "Demolitioned Naval Vessel – RFS KERCH 753 – April 2020". 28 April 2020.
- ^ "RFS 753 Kerch and RFS B-380".