Kashin class destroyer

Smetlivy in the Red Sea in June 2003
Class overview
Name:	Kashin class
Builders:	61 Kommunara Zavod Nikolayev Yard, Zhdanov yard, Leningrad
Operators:	Soviet Navy /  Russian Navy  Polish Navy  Indian Navy
Preceded by:	Kanin class
Succeeded by:	Sovremennyy class
Subclasses:	Rajput class
In service:	1962
In commission:	1962
Completed:	25
Active:	6
Lost:	1
Retired:	19
General characteristics
Type:	Destroyer
Displacement:	3,400 tons standard, 4,390 tons full load
Length:	144 m (472 ft)
Beam:	15.8 m (52 ft)
Draught:	4.6 m (15 ft)
Propulsion:	2 × COGAG; 2 shafts, 4 × M8E gas turbines; 72,000 hp (54,000 kW) up to 96,000 hp (72,000 kW)
Speed:	38 kn (70 km/h; 44 mph) (4 gas turbines on full power)
Range:	3,500 nmi (6,480 km; 4,030 mi) at 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement:	266 to 320
Armament:	2 × twin 76 mm (3 in) AK-726 guns 2 × twin launchers (NATO reporting name: SA-N-1 Goa) for navalised version of the Isayev S-125 (SA-3 Goa) surface-to-air missile system (32 x missiles) 1 × 5 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes 2 × twelve barrel RBU-6000 ASW rocket launchers 2 × six barrel RBU-1000 ASW rocket launchers
Aircraft carried:	1 x helicopter (Rajput class only)
Aviation facilities:	Landing pad

The Kashin-class destroyers were a group of guided missile destroyers built for the Soviet Navy in the 1960s and early 1970s. Their Soviet designation was Project 61. As of 2016^[update], one ship is in service with the Russian Navy, and five modified ships are in service with the Indian Navy as Rajput-class destroyers.

In the Soviet Union they were officially classified as "guard ships" (storozhevoi korabl – SKR), then "large ASW ships" (BPK) or "large missile ships" (BRK), but in the rest of world they are commonly regarded as missile destroyers due to their size and armament. They were the first Soviet purpose-built anti-air warfare ships and the first to carry an ASW helicopter.

The design specification was approved in 1957; the first ship was laid down in 1959 and commissioned in 1962. Much new equipment was developed for these ships, including surface-to-air missiles, radars and gas turbine engines. The gas turbines were arranged in two separate spaces and could be removed via the funnels for servicing. These were also the first Soviet ships designed to be closed down for nuclear fallout and had an operations room deep inside the ship rather than a large bridge.

Six ships were modernised in the 1970s as the Project 61M or 61MP (Kashin-Mod), by being fitted with four SS-N-2C Styx anti-ship missiles, new towed-array sonar, a raised helipad and four close range AK-630 Gatling guns. The two RBU-1000 ASW rocket launchers were mounted aft, but later removed.

Smetlivy was modernised (mk01090) at Sevastopol in the early 1990s and fitted with new Kh-35 (SS-N-25 Switchblade, Harpoonski) anti-ship missiles and MNK-300 sonar. She is the only Kashin-class vessel currently active in the Russian Navy.