WHAT IT IS
Project 1155 Fregat (Фрегат) is the Soviet large anti-submarine ship that NATO called Udaloy. It is the gas-turbine successor to the steam Kresta II (1134A) and the paired half of a late-Cold-War surface team: 1155 hunts submarines, Project 956 Sarych (Sovremenny) kills ships. Twelve 1155 hulls were completed. One stretched redesign, Project 1155.1 Fregat-M (Admiral Chabanenko), is the Udaloy II and is not the same as 1155M.
1155M is the mid-life rebuild of an original 1155. The finished example is Marshal Shaposhnikov, reclassified after Dalzavod work as a first-rank multi-purpose frigate: Rastrub and one AK-100 gone, 3S14 UKSK and Uran in their place. Other 1155s have had repairs; Shaposhnikov is the one that changed type.
HISTORY
Severnoye PKB drew Fregat in the 1970s as a BPK that could keep up with a carrier group, fly two helicopters, and carry a low-frequency sonar that reached the first convergence zone. Yantar (Kaliningrad) and the Pacific yards built the class from the late 1970s. Lead ship Udaloy commissioned 1980. Sisters served Northern and Pacific Fleets through the 1980s–90s as ASW escorts and distant-service hulls.
After 1991 several were cannibalized or laid up. Survivors into the 2010s–20s include Vice-Admiral Kulakov, Severomorsk, Admiral Levchenko, Admiral Vinogradov, Admiral Tributs, Admiral Panteleyev and Marshal Shaposhnikov, with exact lists moving as ships cycle through yard periods. Admiral Chabanenko (1155.1) is the lone Udaloy II, laid down as a Moskit strike / ASW hybrid and long in overhaul.
Shaposhnikov entered Dalzavod, Vladivostok, in 2016. She left for sea trials 10 July 2020 and rejoined the Pacific Fleet as a 1155M frigate in 2021. The Navy talked of more 1155s following that pattern; cost and yard load have kept the full package on one hull so far.
HULL AND PLANT — 1155
Length 163–163.5 m, beam 19.0–19.3 m, hull draft about 5.2–6.2 m, sonar dome to about 7.5–7.9 m. Standard displacement often listed 6,200–6,700 t; full load 7,570 t on tight cards, 8,200–8,500 t on others. Crew about 220–249 on Soviet figures, ~300 on some Western ones. Autonomy 30 days.
Plant: two-shaft COGAG. Typical set — two M-62 (or M70/D090 class) cruise turbines plus two M-8KF / DT59 boost turbines. Combined figures in open cards run 60,000 to about 120,000 hp depending on whether the writer quotes cruise-only or both pairs. Practical maximum 28–30 kn. Economic 14–18 kn. Range commonly 4,000 nmi at 18 kn or 5,700–10,500 nmi at 14 kn; Shaposhnikov after rebuild is quoted 6,882 nmi at 14 kn. Fuel on the order of 1,700–2,000 t.
Two hangars and a pad for two Ka-27 family helicopters (usually one Ka-27PL and a second PL or targeting bird). That is the visible difference from Kresta II’s single Ka-25 hangar.
WEAPONS — STOCK 1155
Rastrub-B / SS-N-14 Silex. Two quadruple KT launchers beside the bridge, eight 85RU rocket-torpedoes. Same family as late Kresta II Metel: fly tens of kilometres, drop a homing torpedo, or use the dual-role anti-ship warhead. This is the ship’s long ASW / limited ASuW punch.
Kinzhal / SA-N-9 Gauntlet (3K95). Eight 8-cell 3S95 vertical drums — 64 ready 9M330 missiles. Four launch groups: forecastle, amidships, and by the RBUs. Rate of fire on the order of a salvo every few seconds from each drum set. Two 3R95 / MR-360 Podkat (Cross Sword) directors. This is point-to-short-area defence, not S-300F.
Guns and inner ASW. Two single AK-100 100 mm, MR-184 Lev (Kite Screech). Four AK-630, two MR-123 Vympel. Two RBU-6000 (about 96 RGB-60 plus decoy rockets on some loads). Two quadruple ChTA-53-1155 533 mm tubes for 53-65K, SET-65, or 83RN / 84RN rocket-torpedoes. Mine rails. Four AK-630 and Kinzhal are the air inner layer.
SENSORS — STOCK 1155
Air search: MR-760MA Fregat-MA (Top Plate) 3-D, S-band, published air range on the order of 300 km. Surface / low-flyer: MR-320M Topaz-V (Strut Pair) and, on ships that have it, MR-350 Podkat. Navigation: three MR-212 Vaygach (Palm Frond). Combat system: Lesorub-1155 (Lesorub-5). Metel / Rastrub directors: Drakon (Eye Bowl).
Sonar is the reason the hull exists. MGK-355 Polinom suite: bow low-frequency set (Orion / Horse Jaw / Platina family, first-CZ class detection in good water) plus Platina / Horse Tail variable-depth sonar to shoot under the layer. Underwater telephone and torpedo-warning channels sit in the same stack. ESM/ECM: Start / Start-2 (Bell Shroud / Bell Squat family). Decoys: two PK-2 and, on later ships, ten PK-10.
PROJECT 1155M — SHAPOSHNIKOV
Dalzavod cut out the two Rastrub boxes and the after AK-100, rebuilt a large piece of the superstructure, rewired analog to digital, and fitted 3R-60U-1155 combat control. New air-search set: 5P-30N2 Fregat-N2 on the foremast. Communications R-779-28. EW TK-25 on the published buy list. Artillery FCS MR-123-02/3 Bagira.
Strike: two 8-cell 3S14 UKSK modules — 16 cells for Kalibr-NK (3M14 land-attack, 3M54 anti-ship), 91RT / Otvet ASW missiles, and on paper Onyx and Tsirkon if the cell and fire-control path are cleared. Eight 3S24 Uran (Kh-35) in two quadruple deck boxes where Rastrub sat. Gun: one A-190-01 100 mm stealth turret forward. Kinzhal, AK-630, torpedo tubes, helicopters and the Polinom idea remain. Crew still cited ~220 with 29 officers. Speed still ~30 kn.
Use after rebuild: the ship can still prosecute a submarine with Otvet, tubes, RBU and two Helix, and can now fire land-attack and anti-ship missiles without waiting for a 956 or a 22350. Sixteen UKSK cells is a budget load compared with a new Gorshkov or a destroyer; it is still a different ship from the 1980 BPK. Critics noted the expensive yard period and the modest cell count. The Navy accepted the type change to first-rank frigate.
1155.1 — NOT 1155M
Admiral Chabanenko is Project 1155.1 Fregat-M / Udaloy II: one twin AK-130, eight Moskit (SS-N-22), two Kortik / Kashtan instead of four AK-630, RBU-12000 Udav instead of RBU-6000, Zvezda-2 / Bronza sonar family, same 64 Kinzhal. Built as a one-off multi-role heavy destroyer. Do not file her as the Shaposhnikov modernization.
USE CASE
Stock 1155: ASW screen for a Northern or Pacific force, SOSUS-gap patrol, helicopter picket, Kinzhal bubble over the formation. She was never the anti-carrier shooter — that was 956, 1164 and 1144. 1155M adds Kalibr/Uran so one hull can hit a port or a destroyer and still drop a rocket-torpedo. Two hangars keep the class useful in the high latitudes where a single helicopter is a single point of failure.
Limits: Kinzhal is not Poliment-Redut. Stock Rastrub load is eight. Hull and turbines are 1980s. Polinom is powerful for its generation and still needs a quiet day and a competent team. 1155M does not make the ship a 22350M.
STATUS
Original 1155s still form the Russian Navy’s large ASW destroyer count, rotating through repair. Marshal Shaposhnikov is the completed 1155M frigate in the Pacific. Chabanenko remains the unique 1155.1. No new 1155 hulls.
IN ONE SENTENCE
Project 1155 Fregat is the COGAG two-hangar BPK with Polinom, eight Rastrub and 64 Kinzhal; 1155M is Shaposhnikov rebuilt with 16 UKSK and eight Uran as a first-rank frigate; 1155.1 Chabanenko is the separate Moskit Udaloy II — three related hulls, not one drawing.