Kashtan-class salvage vessel

The Project 141, (NATO reporting name Kashtan class) is a class of salvage vessel/submersible support built at Rostock's Neptun Werft in East Germany for the Soviet Navy.^[1]

SS-750 with its submersible in the Strait of Baltiysk
Class overview
Name	Kashtan class
Builders	Neptun Werft, Rostock, East Germany
Operators	Soviet Navy (former)  Russian Navy
Completed	8
General characteristics
Type	Salvage vessel/ Submersible support
Displacement	4,200 tons standard 6,200 tons full load
Length	97.83 m (321 ft 0 in)
Beam	18.20 m (59 ft 9 in)
Draught	5.70 m (18 ft 8 in)
Propulsion	2 × 1,500 hp (1,100 kW) diesel-electric motors, 2 fixed pitch propellers, 1 bow thruster, 5 × 775 kW diesel generators
Speed	13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph)
Range	2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km; 2,300 mi) at 11 kn (20 km/h; 13 mph)
Complement	47

In total, eight ships of this type were commissioned from 1988 to 1990.^[2] The ships became part of the Russian Navy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The stern has a crane capable of lifting 100 tons with which a Priz-class deep-submergence rescue vehicle (DSRV) can be launched and recovered.^[1]

Operations

The submersible AS-26 that a Kashtan-class ship can launch

In June 2014 it was reported that SS-750 had participated in sea trials in the Baltic Sea of a Bester-1 submersible.^[3]

On 6 September 2022 Russia's Ministry of Defence informed that SS-750 had participated in sea trials in the Baltic Sea of two new, improved Kilo-class submarines^[4] and on 6 October there was again news of SS-750 having participated in sea trials in the Baltic Sea, this time with a single submarine.^[5]

In April 2023 the Danish Defence Command confirmed that on 22 September 2022 SS-750 and the Priz-class submersible AS-26 that it can launch were among six Russian Navy ships operating in the area where four days later the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage occurred.^[6][7]

Ships

These are the eight Kashtan-class ships:^[2]

Name	Yard number	Launched	Commissioned	Fleet	New name	Status
KIL-926	141/1465	1986-11-29	1988-06-27	Baltic	Alexandr Pushkin (from 1999-05-27)	Active as of 2014[update][8]
KIL-927	142/1468	1987-10-06	1988-11-23	Pacific		Active as of 2021[update][9]
KIL-143	143/1469	1988-01-20	1989-02-28	Northern		Active as of 2006[update][10]
KIL-158	144/1470	1988-04-29	1989-06-30	Black Sea (Baltic before 1989-11-08)		Active as of 2020[update][11]
KIL-164	145/1471	1988-02-09	1989-10-20	Northern		Active as of 2016[update][12]
KIL-498	146/1476	1988-12-20	1990-02-28	Pacific		Active as of 2019[update][13]
KIL-140	147/1477	1989-06-16	1990-06-30	Baltic	SS-750 (from September 1995)	Active as of 2022[update][6]
KIL-168	148/1478	1989-09-30	1990-10-05	Pacific (Black Sea before)		Active as of 2016[update][14]

Gallery

• 
  KIL-158 in 2012 in Yuzhnaya Bay, Sevastopol, the Black Sea
• 
  SS-750 launching the submersible AS-26
• 
  KIL-158 at sea
• 
  KIL-927 in Vladivostok

See also

• List of ships of the Soviet Navy
• List of ships of Russia by project number
• List of active Russian Navy ships