Vishnya-class intelligence ship


The Vishnya class are a group of intelligence collection ships built for the Soviet Navy in the 1980s. The ships continue in service with the Russian Navy. The Soviet designation is Project 864. The Russian Navy operates seven of these ships.

Design

These ships are large, purpose built ships designed for signals intelligence gathering via an extensive array of sensors. The data could be transmitted to shore via satellite link antennas housed in two large radomes. The ships are armed with two AK-630 close-in weapon systems and SA-N-8 surface-to-air missile launchers, for last resort self-defense.

Operations

Vasily Tatishchev was deployed to the Eastern Mediterranean Sea on 5 October 2015 to monitor the conflict in Syria.
On February 15, 2017, CNN reported that SSV Viktor Leonov, a Russian spy ship was sitting off the coast of Connecticut. This is the farthest north the Russian spy vessel has ever ventured, according to US defense officials. CNN later reported that Viktor Leonov, which conducted similar patrols in 2014 and 2015, was off the coast of Delaware, but typically she only travels as far north as Virginia. The ship is based with Russia's Northern Fleet in the North Sea but had stopped over in Cuba before conducting her patrol along the Atlantic Coast and is expected to return there following her latest mission. She was spotted operating off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia in December of 2019. The United States Coast Guard at the time published a MSIB pertaining to unsafe operations being performed in that area, including running without navigation lights, and failing to respond to hails. The ship is outfitted with a variety of high-tech spying equipment and is designed to intercept signals intelligence. The official said that the US Navy was "keeping a close eye on it.".

Ships

NameHull No.Laid downLaunchedCommissionedFleetStatusNotes
Fedor Golovin
52014 November 1985Baltic FleetActive
Kareliya5355 July 1986Pacific FleetActiveRepairs and retrofit completed on 20 July 2017.
Tavriya16917 January 1987Northern FleetActive
Priazovye20112 June 1987Black Sea FleetActive
Kurily20816 October 1987Pacific FleetActive
Vasiliy Tatishchev
23127 November 198723 July 1988Baltic FleetActive
Viktor Leonov
1751988Northern FleetActive