The Russian then Soviet navies and the modern Russian navy all had their fleet structure decided more by Geography than any other navy. The Northern, Baltic , Black Sea and Pacific fleets pretty much all had to be seperate entities as they had trouble sharing ships even in peace time and in wartime could not cooperate. That does not effect Aurora though.Thanks for clarifying things a bit, if you can look up that book it'd be fantastic.
I have a book on Soviet organisation but I cannot find it so this is from memory, if it turns up though I will see what it has on the organisation within the area fleets.
The Amphibious forces in the Northern and Baltic fleets were certainly subordinate to the navy rather then the army and I believe the initial assault troops were Naval Infantry under fleet rather than army command , although any follow on forces would have been drawn from an army division.
I also believe that adminstrativly there were destroyer/cruiser/tanker squadrons like most navies for operation use ships were assigned to mixed organisations built around the mission and command ship, tankers, tugs etc would have been assigned based on the mission. Northern fleet operations in the Atlantic would always have logistics ships and tugs as would a meditteranean deployment but the Baltic and Black sea fleets would have little or no logistic support because they were always near their base. The Tugs were because the Soviets and Russians had almost no freindly bases in the Atlantic area so wanted to make sure any ship with a problem could be returned to the Soviet Union rather than having to limp into a NATO port and be embarrassed.
So, this is what I was able to pull up in my info;
Administratively, the Soviet Navy of the 1980's broke up their combat arms into;
-Underwater
-Surface
-Naval Aviation
-Coastal Forces (including coastal missiles)
-Marines
The Soviet Navy did have ships included as part of the auxiliary fleet and special units, but these were assigned to commands as needed, usually by fleet region (Baltic, Northern, Pacific, ect)
Operationally, the Navy was divided into regionally commands;
- Soviet Baltic Fleet
- Soviet Northern Fleet
- Soviet Pacific Fleet
- Soviet Black Sea Fleet
- Soviet Caspian Flotilla
Marski, I think this might help your group classification;
Ships and subs were classed by function;
attack submarines (primary torpedo armed, Anti-submarine)
missile submarines (primary missile armed, anti-ship role)
ballistic submarines (nuclear armed missiles)
guided missile ships (these were any offensive vessel armed primarily with long rang anti-ship missiles)
surface ships (primarily fleet defense, but also general purpose ships, but anti-aircraft missile armed ships fell into this as well)
naval aviation ships
Anti-submarine ships
guard ships (escort and coastal defense and patrol ships)
In actual operational use, the Soviet Navy would assign ship types based on their role to an operations area. So, if the Pacific fleet need ASW ships, Soviet Naval command would assign ships accordingly, based on their current operational classification. The regional fleet command would then assign the ships duties as they saw fit. The only exception to this were the ballistic missile submarines, which were under the control of the central naval command, due to their role as strategic nuclear weapons platforms.
So, the confusing thing about the Soviet Navy is that ship classification was completely dependent on role/armament. As ships were modified/rebuilt over the years, their designation changed.
For example, the Type 61 Kashins were originally commissioned as guard ships. They were later modified and reclassed as ASW ships, and then modified again and reclassed as guided missile ships. The same thing happened with the Type 57 Kanin, originally commissioned as guided missile ships, they were later modified and reclassed as a surface ship when they moved to a general purpose role. Other navies classed both these ships as destroyers.
Another example would be the Project 1135 Burevestnik (Nato: Krivak) ships. They were originally designed as guard ships, changed and commissioned to be ASW ships, rebuilt as guided missile ships. 8 of them were also built and assigned to the KGB Maritime border guards and classed as guard ships. Other navies classed these ships as frigates.
So, its a bit messy and confusing. If you really want to sprain your brain, here is fairly good summary of the Soviet ship classification;
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/ship-designations.htm (https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/russia/ship-designations.htm)
Marski, if your looking for a fast rule, the Soviet tradition would class ships based on armament/intended role and what the rough size of the ship was. In Aurora, it would look something like this with the existing ship classes.
So, if the ship was using anti-ship missiles, and its roughly destroyer sized = Guided missile destroyer (DDG)
A generic railgun armed frigate would be a kinetic frigate (FK) while a frigate used for scouting would be a scout frigate (SF), and a missile frigate (FFG)
If you wanted something more accurate, it would require some custom ship classes to be added.
Hope that helps!
Thats pretty much correct.I tried my best, I have a lot of ships.
The Soviets, much like the Americans, would then assign ship brigades to tactical units as needed, like so;
Soviet Space Navy
-Alpha Centauri Fleet
--Auxiliary naval ships
---Freighter brigade (6 medium freighters)
---Terraformer brigade (5 terraformer ships)
--Naval ships (unassigned naval ships)
--1st Operational Group
---Naval Aviation brigade (2 cruisers)
---Ship brigade (2 escort cruisers)
---Missile ship brigade (4 missile destroyers)
---Missile ship brigade (4 missile frigates)
---Ship brigade (4 kinetic frigates)