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Russian Trawlers ?? World Naval Ships Forums Archive

Russian Trawlers ??

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Russian Trawler enters floating dock,then look what we find.Not as innocent as they look.
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Scratcher, I bet them that put the 'laugh' in Onslaught and its successors didn't need to wait till it docked down to know that mate;) Little h

Truly amazing the CREATIVITY they show in catching "FISH" now isn't it??? DFO :rolleyes:

I've run across a few of these types around the US. What you see is not alway's what you get as the photo's does illustrate. Regards Charles

It is the "Trials Ship", as you see number OS-57 (O - for "opytovoe" or Trials or Experimental, S - for "sudno" or Ship), so it provides testing of torpedo armament and sonar equipment and could be used for exercises with submarines

Top pictures scratcher, Poor old Buster Crab would have been proud of your work, god bless im. Al Zic

Hi to everybody. Do any of you have pictures of those "fishing boats", especially made in 60-s? I am interested to have a look at them with your eyes. Many thanks in advance.

Ivan has always been crafty with his so called "Trawlers" or AGI's as every one knew them. They used to Plague the life out of Aircraft Carriers,always trying to film take off and landings.Had pretty good radio intercept gear too! We were once followed out of gib on Churchill by one of these things,no doubt trying to record a good engine "Signature" fooled him though,played repeatedly over the 183 U/W telephone a endering of Sid Viciouse and The Sex Pistols. He gave up on us afterabout an Hour.I was up on the top of the fin getting some "freshers" and it was a scream to see him trying to manouver around to see if he could drown out the Music.Oh Happy Days!! Steve.:D:D:D

Hi, remember those rusian spy trawlers well, whilst stationed at NAS Portland. I think they were called Elints in the early sixtys. We had a wessex chopper with very large floats as undercarridge (we called it Bootsy) crammed full of secret electronics, where every Bootsy went there was always an Elint in close prox. Derek (Bunts)

OK, thanks. Here is one picture I've got earlier from the I-net. It came from USA DoD files in 1960 as a first evidence thereof. Does anyone have similar, made from NATO units in that times and/or earlier - later?
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Always good to have shufti look-see at this source:- Just scroll on from page 281.... SORRY ABOUT THE FAILED LINK BUT I HAVE INCLUDED THE DETAILS IN THE FOLLOWING POST (which started off as a duplicate of this one.. long time since I did that:eek::eek::o:o) Little h

Always good to have shufti look-see at this source:- Just scroll on from page 281.... Strangely on this occasion it wouldn't copy & paste but the site to Google is Google Books - Naval Institute Guide to Soviet Navy Intelligence Collecting Ships ................. [B]As they say in tombola ... HERE YOU ARE THEN[/B]!!!! [url]http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tkGDkpkQh-sC&pg=PA282&lpg=PA282&dq=soviet+AGI+Trawlers&source=bl&ots=ftJ8tWoskE&sig=1bq0NLDYfLOtp1k9QBRTL5M3W5w&hl=en&ei=62NfS5vmIofu0gS00bmSDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CBcQ6AEwBg#[/url] Little h

That one was made from USS "Rankin" in 1966. Is it of interest for anybody?
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You could always tell them by appearance.Anybody seen a comercial Trawler with so many antea?? Ivan must have tought we were all stupid.Normal trawlers run a mile from a warship,to try and protect their nets and catch! Regards Steve.:D

Although the ship pictured is Polish Navy, the Russians used the T43 class minesweeper for ELINT purposes,mainly around Aircraft Carriers as thry could just about keep up with them! If my memory serves me right,did'nt Ark or Eagle collide with a Russian Destroyer in the Med when it got in the way of flying ops.? Does anyone have the full story and perhaps some photos?. Cheers. Steve.:D:D:D [ATTACH]67857[/ATTACH]
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I do remember being aboard a troop ship bound for a certain West African counry in 1985 and "battle stations" being sounded as a Russian "trawler" passed very close to our port bow. Many of our men laughed as they could not understand the reason for such "panic". This incident must have taken place in late 1985 off the coast of MAURTANIA. There did seem to be quite a lot of Russian kit on the water during the journey there and the journey back. I took photos at the time and will try to get them on the forum one of these days.

When I was stationed on Guam, we had AGI's around all the time, trying to pick up on our SSBN Boomers or SSN hunter killers and the like. I heard they tracked one boomer for all of a record-setting 30 seconds after it left Apra Harbor. Also during the Vietnam war they tracked the B-52 sorties from Anderson AFB as well. They used to stay south or west of Guam for the most part. I heard a rumor that when one of them decided to try and sit off the north end of Guam, where Anderson Air Force Base is, the Air Force loaded up a C-130 with fresh garbage and did an overfly and dumped on the Soviets. I hear they moved back to the west side of Guam. Probably apocryphal, but then we did do some zany things in those days just to piss off the Russians, who were notoriously lacking in any sense of humor whatsoever.

[URL=http://radikal.ru/F/s004.radikal.ru/i205/1003/26/ea7a6f52192f.jpg.html][IMG]http://s004.radikal.ru/i205/1003/26/ea7a6f52192ft.jpg[/IMG][/URL] [URL=http://radikal.ru/F/s60.radikal.ru/i170/1003/4c/6df48ad2afb3.jpg.html][IMG]http://s60.radikal.ru/i170/1003/4c/6df48ad2afb3t.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Ah, Rogov -- the photo on the left brings back memories! More antennas than my ship had, and I was on a carrier. The one on the right looks like a much more modern ice breaker rather than a signals catcher? And yes, I know we had our little "fisheries research vessels" and "oceanic survey ships" buzzing around the Russian coastline irritating the hell out of your navy as well. Name of the game in those days. In fact, I think we still do it -- old habits, etc! Thanks for the great photo. :) Regards,

Icebreaker "Russia," the military option. Previously, it was more fun than now. ;) Best regards. Rogov.

Rogov: I agree. But I like the fact we are not seriously at each other anymore even better. Makes the day go by a little nicer! :) Regards,

[QUOTE=Old Seaman;95164]OK, thanks. Here is one picture I've got earlier from the I-net. It came from USA DoD files in 1960 as a first evidence thereof. Does anyone have similar, made from NATO units in that times and/or earlier - later?[/QUOTE] I too am seeking photographs, particularly of the upper decks and intercept arrays of the OKEAN Class particularly GIDROFON, for a model. I have a few shots from the web but there are not many clear ones - your posting is one of the better I have seen. Thankyou.

Welcome to the forum. I appreciate that this is not a photograph but I thought it might be possibly of some use?
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Thanks Terry. Saw something similar in one of Siegfried Breyer's books. This set of drawings is very helpful. Cheers Dave P Canberra ACT

Found one of the same class in a publication of Russian Origin. It is LOTLIN' - the source being noted as the USNI Photographic Collection. A good clear shot which show this class as developed. The pic of GIDROFON is from a private blog and shows her as I remember her. GIDROFON lacked the box like structure on the top of the bridge and the deck house extension I believe. What is interesting with this class is that the port side is closed in below the bridge while the starboard is open to well aft of the bridge. Anyone venture a reason for this? Cheers Dave P Canberra
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Hi Skipper, Nice to help you in your modeling investigations. Here you are with some extra pics of OKEAN class AGIs. All those came from a US source as I remember. Cheers, Serge.
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Here are some extra pics of Gidrofon. These two shots of her shadowing the Coral Sea are quite famous ones.
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I have some old shots of OKEANs, like these ones below. Some of them were posted here by Forum members, some came from the I-net. Regards, Serge.
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Hi there. Does anyone know how to buy the model kit (see the link below)? [url]http://cgi.ebay.com/ADVENT-REVELL-RUSSIAN-SPY-FISHING-TRAWLER-VOLGA-2554-/350392478165?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519504e9d5[/url] I tried but without success. Probably because the purchase is available only in USA.

You should be able to buy the item no problem using paypal, even if you don't have a paypal account you can still pay via paypal using a credit/debit card. The trawler in question has been sold by Revell under various guises over the years, they marketed it as a russian spy trawler in 1971 named Volga. In 1970 the same kit was being sold as the fishing trawler Khandahar or similar.

Not directly related to any of the photos here, but the Chinese PLAN also deployed annoying little spy ships around Yankee Station and our refueling rendevous during the Vietnam war. I remember one incident when we were UNREP with the Sacremento or Camden and one of their little buggers decided to make that casual pass across our bows to try to force and emergency breakaway. Our Captain (senior officer present) ordered a gentle rudder adjustment by both ships simultaneously, and we slide aft of him with no problem. Didn't even strain the handling lines or refueling lines much. They must have assumed we didn't have ship handlers handy that could gently shift a 44,000 ton carrier and 50,000 ton AOE simultaneously with such grace and elan. Bunch of punks aboard those third rate ships.

There was a tradition in Soviet commercial & fishing fleets to have these "accessories". My father worked several years in Romanian Ocean Fishing Co, starting as sailor on the first two trawlers "Galati" & "Constanta" (built in Japan), 1966 and retired as production chief in 1990. He worked on all types of trawlers from the Polish B22 & B419, to the East German Atlantic 2 and Superatlantic and to the Romanian built Superatlantic ships. They fished from Boston, Terra Nova (1968) to Mauritania, Nigeria, Angola, South Africa, Somalia, Scotland. He visited many Soviet trawlers in Lagos, Nouadhibou, Luanda, Walvis Bay. Besides the special compartments for torpedo tubes some of them had compartments with small caliber canons (23-30 mm). They needed only to cut a hole in the board of the ship, turn the canons and use them. He didn't believe they had the torpedotubes installed but those could be brought easy by collector (cold storage/transport) ships and installed in these harbors (mainly Luanda, Walvis Bay & Nouadhibou.

[QUOTE=Old Seaman;125394]I have some old shots of OKEANs, like these ones below. Some of them were posted here by Forum members, some came from the I-net. Regards, Serge.[/QUOTE] Serge I must aplogise for the time it has taken for me to respond to your great effort in providing the very useful photographs of GIDROFON and her class. I do appreciate the time and effort you have put in which has not been wasted - this ship is still on my to build list(1/72 scale). Its just that I got sidetracked on some other ships for a while like the Russian Project 20380 corvette. Thanks again David

Hi David, no probs. I am still expeting to see what will come out from your hands. :rolleyes:

I originally posted most of this entry on another thread that was the only one talking about my old ship, USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19), but it is just as relevant to this thread. I never got a photo of the KURSOGRAPH at that time, it did it's best to remain out of sight and only did the actual transfer of our officer after dark. Here's an additional link about that incident from the ship's history report for that year, but it is mostly "naval happy talk" for the public record. It was a totally different situation at the time. [url]http://www.history.navy.mil/shiphist/b/lcc-19/1973.pdf[/url] "Old Blueberry" (Blue Ridge) does have a unique distinction from it's early years of operation. In late September of 1973, at the start of a training exercise with the Philippine Navy, Operation Pagsa II, one of BR's Ensigns went over the side at night. That initiated a SAR operation for several days for all planes and ships in the convoy, with no apparent recovery. After being declared "missing at sea" and resuming the exercise, the American Embassy in Moscow was notified that a Soviet AGI, KURSOGRAPH, that was dogging our exercise, had picked up our sailor the late morning of the day he disappeared. He was the first non-soviet to "board" (that we were aware of) a Soviet AGI and be returned (we wondered how many were "planted" in Siberia over time, since AGI's were always tailing our operations..."fishing" our airwaves and our "garbage"). There are many stories on the web about how he went over the side and his "Hollywood" recovery that I have a FB note on, if you have a FB id: [url]http://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&¬e_id=197536763606996[/url] .

Hi Spook, Here you are with KURSOGRAPH pics.
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Some extra. Regards, Serge.
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Thanks for the photos, Serge. Only your last one looks like the ship I saw, they really changed it at their refit. When they were originally thinking of having me on the retrieval crew, the bow area was to be my area of concentration when coming alongside. Also, the clear forward main deck of it's earlier version was reinforced in my memory because of the humor it generated in our IOIC BS for days after. As is often the case with intelligence analysts, there is always the attempt to guess what Ivan was hiding behind a hatch based on the limited sight of a photo and what the analyst thought was needed. Apparently, with good weather they would watch movies at night on the forward main deck after setting it up with folding chairs. What one of our CIA or DIA analysts had thought contained some advance electronic gear, turned out to be were they stowed their folding chairs. We parodied that across the naval spectrum until our officers thought it was wearing thin. Had you ever heard of this incident before? I was surprised to see it in the Blue Ridge history report, but our captain and intel officer looked at things in a different way. I had only come across it on several blogs from several individuals on the ship at that time.

Hi Spook, Yesterday I found extra one photo of KURSOGRAPH in the I-Net dated 1972. I think there she looks like in your times of meeting her.
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[QUOTE=Old Seaman;10016645]Hi Spook, Yesterday I found extra one photo of KURSOGRAPH in the I-Net dated 1972. I think there she looks like in your times of meeting her.[/QUOTE] Yes I remember vessels just as this one loitering off Apra harbor, Guam during 72-73.. It creeped me out then and it still does today.

Some photos of Russian AGIs, etc., in the vicinity of HMS Ark Royal in the 1970s from the late Billy Brettle collection. Jim
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[QUOTE=IC2(SS)19Z50C5;10018401]Yes I remember vessels just as this one ........ It creeped me out then and it still does today.[/QUOTE] Welcome IC2, Can't imagine why! I feel sure we have been doing the same thing for just as long as them(no offence meant Old Seaman). There were a lot more scary things that went on in the cold war 'game' than being followed/pursued/harassed by an AGI or three. Here is a [URL="http://spookgroup.tripod.com/index.html"]tell tale [/URL]site Little h

[QUOTE=harry.gibbon;10018420]Welcome IC2, There were a lot more scary things that went on in the cold war 'game' than being followed/pursued/harassed by an AGI or three. Little h[/QUOTE] IC2(SS) here, Oh Yes!!.. I am very, very well aware of that, I remember them well. Both during my time in the Skimmer/Target Fleet during a Med cruise in the LEAHY (DLG-16) Sep70-May71 and during my time as a Submarineer during patrols. For me old feelings never go away.

[QUOTE=IC2(SS)19Z50C5;10018511]IC2(SS) here, Oh Yes!!.. I am very, very well aware of that, I remember them well. Both during my time in the Skimmer/Target Fleet during a Med cruise in the LEAHY (DLG-16) Sep70-May71 and during my time as a Submarineer during patrols. For me old feelings never go away.[/QUOTE] IC2(SS), Thanks for your reply. Having been a participant in the 'art/activity', I would still contend that 'dealing' with an AGI whilst on a surface vessel, was distinctly less worrysome than many of the other encounters/obstacles one could happen upon during a prolonged sub surface patrol;);) Little h

[QUOTE=Scratcher;71455]Russian Trawler enters floating dock,then look what we find.Not as innocent as they look.[/QUOTE] Well what sort of drive it it?

[QUOTE=TCC;10018714]Well what sort of drive it it?[/QUOTE] any hints [URL="http://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/showpost.php?p=137980&postcount=151"]contained here-in[/URL] perhaps? Little h

[QUOTE=Don Boyer;103618]When I was stationed on Guam, we had AGI's around all the time, trying to pick up on our SSBN Boomers or SSN hunter killers and the like. I heard they tracked one boomer for all of a record-setting 30 seconds after it left Apra Harbor. Also during the Vietnam war they tracked the B-52 sorties from Anderson AFB as well. They used to stay south or west of Guam for the most part. I heard a rumor that when one of them decided to try and sit off the north end of Guam, where Anderson Air Force Base is, the Air Force loaded up a C-130 with fresh garbage and did an overfly and dumped on the Soviets. I hear they moved back to the west side of Guam. Probably apocryphal, but then we did do some zany things in those days just to piss off the Russians, [B]who were notoriously lacking in any sense of humor whatsoever.[/QUOTE][/B] I suppose it depended on the individual CO of the AGI. I remember an encounter with one such vessel which had a humourous turn. My ship was part of a Canadian Task Group of four destroyers and an AOR. We had exercised in the western Mediterranean and were making a liesurely transit northward for a port visit in Plymouth, exercising enroute. As we exited the Straits of Gibraltar, a Moma Class AGI attached itself to the force and tailed us up the coast of Portugal and into the Bay of Biscay. When the TG Commander assigned stations for night steaming on the second evening, as the four destroyers took up their stations around the AOR, the AGI called up via flashing light and asked what her station was supposed to be. Luckily the TG Cdr had a sense of humour too and assigned her a station astern of the AOR. This happened each evening during the transit until the final night when we were heading up the Channel when the TG Cdr asked the AGI whether she would like to act as the guide for the night steam. She declined the offer, but wished us a good port visit in Plymouth and said that she would meet us in four days time when we left Plymouth for our transit back to Halifax. (Have some other AGI-related stories too if there is any interest.)

In the good old days of the Shackleton, part of the old game of tag was tracking Soviet submarines, using sonobuoys - both active and passive. The submarines might occasionally surface and pick up the sonobuoys for inspection and analysis. In the sonobuoy bay we would produce some "specials" with unexpected contents - the idea being that when one of these was picked up, anyone opening it would receive a surprise.

[QUOTE=Scatari;10055298][/B] I suppose it depended on the individual CO of the AGI. I remember an encounter with one such vessel which had a humourous turn. My ship was part of a Canadian Task Group of four destroyers and an AOR. We had exercised in the western Mediterranean and were making a liesurely transit northward for a port visit in Plymouth, exercising enroute. As we exited the Straits of Gibraltar, a Moma Class AGI attached itself to the force and tailed us up the coast of Portugal and into the Bay of Biscay. When the TG Commander assigned stations for night steaming on the second evening, as the four destroyers took up their stations around the AOR, the AGI called up via flashing light and asked what her station was supposed to be. Luckily the TG Cdr had a sense of humour too and assigned her a station astern of the AOR. This happened each evening during the transit until the final night when we were heading up the Channel when the TG Cdr asked the AGI whether she would like to act as the guide for the night steam. [COLOR="Red"][B]She declined the offer, but wished us a good port visit in Plymouth and said that she would meet us in four days time when we left Plymouth for our transit back to Halifax.[/B][/COLOR] (Have some other AGI-related stories too if there is any interest.)[/QUOTE] Nice one Tim! Was the contents of the AGI response ([COLOR="red"][B]in red[/B][/COLOR]):D gleaned from intelligence gathered or promulgated ships' movements list? More stories please! Little h

A source of great interest was taking part in Operation Hornbeam in the North Sea in the 70s ( as a civilian ).

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