Soviet destroyer Opytny

Opytny in Leningrad
History
Soviet Union
Name	Sergo Ordzhonikidze
Namesake	Sergo Ordzhonikidze
Ordered	2nd Five-Year Plan
Builder	Shipyard No. 190 (Zhdanov), Leningrad
Yard number	500
Laid down	26 June 1935
Launched	8 December 1935
Commissioned	11 September 1941
Out of service	March 1944
Renamed	Opytny (Russian: Опытный, lit. 'Experimental'), 25 September 1940
Stricken	10 February 1953
Nickname(s)	Golden Fish or Golden 500
Fate	Scrapped, 1953
General characteristics (as built)
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	1,707 long tons (1,734 t) (normal)
Length	113.5 m (372 ft 5 in) (o/a)
Beam	10.2 m (33 ft 6 in)
Draft	4.6 m (15 ft 1 in) (deep load)
Installed power	4 Ramzin boilers 70,000 shp (52,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range	1,370 nmi (2,540 km; 1,580 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph)
Complement	262
Armament	3 × single 130 mm (5.1 in) guns 4 × single 45 mm (1.8 in) AA guns 3 × single 37 mm (1.5 in) AA guns 2 × quadruple 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes 60 mines 38 depth charges

Opytny (Russian: Опытный, lit. 'Experimental') was the only member of her class of destroyers built for the Soviet Navy during the 1930s. The Soviet designation for her class was Project 45. She was originally named Sergo Ordzhonikidze and was the first Soviet destroyer to be indigenously designed.^[1] Renamed Opytny in 1940, the ship was intended as a prototype for future Soviet destroyers.

Plagued with severe problems with her boilers, the ship was not suited for fleet operations, but the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 (Operation Barbarossa) forced the Navy to accept Opytny several months later. Assigned to the Baltic Fleet in August, the ship was limited to service as a floating battery to provide naval gunfire support for the Red Army during the Siege of Leningrad with frequent periods in reserve or under repair. Opytny was no longer useful after the end of the siege and she was taken out of service in March 1944. A proposal to turn her into a training ship was rejected after the end of World War II and the ship was scrapped in 1953.