This post is about a decommissioned warship named “Druzhny”. Its fate is sad and its future is uncertain. Having been left to corrode in the Khimki reservoir, this massive warship is living out its remaining days. Before taking you on a tour with us, I will give some information on this vessel.

Displacement: full load – 3436 tons, loaded — 3191 tons, normal — 3013 tons, standard — 2835 tons. Length — 122,9 m (403 ft), width — 14,19 m (46,5 ft), draft – 7,21 m (23,7 ft). Gas turbine horsepower – 2×26000; full speed – 32 knots, sea endurance – 4600 miles. Crew members: 180 including 22 officers.

So, the temperature outside was 16 F (-9 C), it had been like that for almost a week and the ice was thick. Soon we saw the leviathan-like warship before us. Its enormous size is difficult to convey by the means of photography, but in reality it looks unbelievably huge.

Although it’s medium-sized by general shipbuilding standards, it is still very impressive.

A little bit of exercise and in a couple of minutes we’re already on board the derelict vessel. We quickly move to the opposite board of the ship, because it is moored near a refrigerating plant, and the security guards from there make rounds and shoo people away from time to time.

Not really knowing where to head next, we take a random direction and end up near the hold and the engine room. It turns out that almost every metal item down there had been stolen in order to be sold to scrap metal collectors. After some wandering around the labyrinths inside the vessel, we decide to come back outside.

Let’s walk the deck from the stern to the front of the ship.

It is possible to get into the inner spaces of the topside. Their condition varies greatly. Some of the rooms are generally intact while others have been looted for scrap metal.

We come outside again and see one of the life-boats before us.

We go up a little bit and find ourselves inside the wheelhouse. A lot of various devices and navigational equipment remain intact here. The first thing to catch our attention is a periscopic sighting device.

This is an optical instrument that is installed on ships in order to keep watch on the sea, the airspace, bank objects, to conduct target search and localization, home on a target, observe fire and so on.

In the upper part of the photo you can see an MR-310 Angara-A search radar station and Musson antenna arrays for Metel antisubmarine rocket weapon system control to the left. In the lower left corner you can see the actual four-tube missile launcher of the RPK-3 Metel antisubmarine rocket weapon system.

Let’s move on to the snout of the ship. Here we can see another naval gun — RBU-6000 rocket-assisted bomb launcher.

Since we hadn’t been spotted by the security up to that moment and the guard had left the quay, we decided to climb higher up one of the antenna towers. The view from here is quite beautiful.

The sudden snowstorm that began at that moment was a “great” surprise. This photo depicts the view towards the stern of the escort ship. In the center of the shot you can see an antenna post that supposedly is a part of the Osa-M missile launcher control system.

It is hard to stay up here long — the strong wind throwing snow at your face doesn’t allow it. So we go back to the wheelhouse. Unfortunately, it had been ransacked by marauders.

An essential piece of equipment — the engine telegraph, which is a ringing communication device that was used to pass the captain’s orders to the engine room.

Lets’s finish up in the wheelhouse and go the the snout of the ship. Here we found a picturesque 45 mm 21-K naval gun.

Let’s go up a bit to take a picture of the ship’s front. You can see all of the different weapons that I’ve described earlier.

If you look back, you feel tiny in comparison with the huge search radar system antenna on top.

Another view towards the front of the ship.

A life-boat on the deck.

We go down to the quay side to take an epic shot of the escort vessel.

P. S. The patrol ship “Druzhniy”, September 1986.

Images by alexdoomer2009, reproduced with permission