History, Development, and Use
of the 'Riga' Class Frigate

This section will cover the history, development, and use of the 'Riga' class frigate.  In this section you will find where the ship has been used, when it was designed, its limitations and abilities, and how the it functions.

  

Brief Operational History

In 1952 the first Riga class frigate was produced.  It was designed as an improved, but lighter armed version of the earlier 'Kola' class escort frigate that ended production that same year.  Over the following six years 48 Riga class frigates were built and put to sea.  Production ended in 1958.

The Riga became quite popular with several foreign fleets in the early Cold War.  East Germany was the first nation to buy the ship, purchasing four between 1956 and 1959.  The Bulgarian navy also purchased two Riga's between 1957 and 1958.  In 1964 Finland agreed to buy two ships.  Indonesia was the last foreign buyer, purchasing eight ships between 1962 and 1965.  The People's Republic of China bought components of the ship and used them to build four Riga-type vessels for coastal patrol duty.

When first introduced in the early Riga's were fitted out with a single MBU-600 hedgehog and four aft mounted BMB-2 depth charge throwers.  Hand-loaded RBU-2500 anti-submarine rocket launchers replaced these older weapons sometime in the 1960's or early 1970's.  A small number of the frigates were further modified in the 1970's by the addition of a dipping sonar and a pair of 25mm anti-aircraft guns on each side of the funnel.  One ship was also fitted with a taller stack cap and given several 'Bell' series ECM systems.  Some ships also had their triple torpedo tubes replaced with more modern twin torpedo launchers.

Despite these modifications, the Soviet Union began to reduce the number of Riga class frigates in service.  At least fourteen Soviet Riga's had been put in reserve status by 1978.  A decade later most of the Riga's in foreign service had been scrapped or placed in reserve by their respective navies.

It is doubtful that any Riga class frigates remained in active service after the fall of the Soviet Union.  The drastic fleet reductions of the 1990's caused a number of modern warships to be stricken from the lists, and the Riga was already being phased out.  They were most likely all been scrapped or kept in storage with the hopes of finding a foreign buyer.

    

Tactical Use and Limitations

The Riga class frigates were simple escort ships designed to protect larger vessels from hostile submarines and aircraft.  The ship was quite capable of defending itself from the threats of the 1950's, its powerful 100mm dual purpose guns and torpedo armament could keep sub-sonic jets, turboprop aircraft, and torpedo boats from inflicting any serious damage on the ships it escorted.

This would change as the years passed and technology advanced.  Supersonic jets, high flying bombers, and the widespread use of anti-ship missiles in the 1960's left the Riga incapable of performing its defensive mission.  The new missiles launched from both ships and aircraft could easily target and destroy the Riga long before the ship could defend itself.

     

Deployment Chronology

Here you can see what ship the Riga class frigate replaced and what ships eventually replaced it in front-line service.  You can find out more about these ships, if we have them on our site, by clicking on the links below.

The Riga replaced... Riga Class Frigate The Riga  was replaced by...
Kola Class Frigate Krivak Class Frigate

  

Sources Cited

Here are some of the most informative sources that we have used in compiling this information for you.  We hope you can find them as useful as we have.