Yastreb-class guard ship
The Yastreb-class guard ships were built for the Soviet Navy as small patrol and escort ships. Fifteen out of twenty planned ships were laid down before the start of Operation Barbarossa. Only one was completed during World War II. Five others were completed after the war, but five were scrapped on the stocks at Nikolayev when it was captured by the Germans in late 1941. Four were scrapped by the Soviets at Leningrad and five were cancelled before they were laid down. The postwar ships were completed to a modified design as Project 29K. One of these was transferred to the NKVD. The last of the ships was scrapped in 1975.
Design
The Yastreb-class guard ships were designed to replace the unsatisfactory that preceded them. The Uragans had proven to be too small for the weight of their armament, too slow and had poor seakeeping capabilities due to their excessive top-weight. Despite being almost twice the displacement of the older ships, the Yastreb were equipped with only one additional main gun. This was done to minimize the stability problems experienced by their predecessors.General characteristics
The Project 29 ships were longer than their predecessors at overall. They had a beam of and, at full load, a draft of. They were significantly heavier than the Uragan class; the Yastreb-class ships displaced at a standard load, and at full load, nearly twice the at standard load of the earlier ships. The Project 29K ships had a deeper draft of at full load and they were slightly heavier than their half-sister; they displaced at a standard load, and at full load. Their crew increased to 127 men, an increase of 15 men over Yastreb.Armament
The intended main armament was three single B-34 guns, protected by gun shields. Some ships reportedly substituted the B-34 guns for three of the naval version 52-K anti-aircraft guns. Four [DShK|] AA machine guns were also carried. The underwater armament consisted of one triple torpedo tube mount, fitted between the funnels and up to 40 mines.Propulsion
Yastreb had 2 shaft geared steam turbines producing that propelled her to. Her endurance was at. The Project 29K ships used the same machinery, but were half a knot slower and had only a range of at.Construction
The construction of all the Project 29 ships was interrupted by Operation Barbarossa in 1941. Those ships furthest along were suspended for the duration of the war, although Yastreb, as the lead ship of the class, was just over half-complete on 22 June 1941. It was finished at the end of 1944 after the Siege of Leningrad was broken in early 1944. Most of the others were scrapped or cancelled. Eleven more ships were intended to be laid down in 1942 and another eight in 1943, but the war ended that plan.Five other ships had made significant progress before the Germans invaded and were completed to a revised design, Project 29K, after the war. These were slightly larger, added four single 61-K AA guns, and a pair of depth charge throwers in lieu of the mines.
The six ships that were to start construction at the Ordzhonikidze Shipyard in Sevastopol actually had their material prepared at Marti South in Nikolayev and shipped to Sevastopol for building. Similarly the three ships launched, but not completed by the end of the war at the Zhandov Shipyard in Leningrad, were towed to the former Schichau-Werke shipyard in Kaliningrad for completion.