Hiddensee (corvette)

Originally commissioned by the East German Navy as the "Rudolf Egelhofer", the "Hiddensee" is a Tarantul I class corvette built at the Petrovsky Shipyard in 1984, located near the Soviet city of St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad). An example of a Soviet-built missile corvette, "Hiddensee" was designed to oppose any naval threat to the East German Coast, and to fulfill this mission carried long-range STYX anti-ship missiles and an array of defensive weapons designed to ensure her own survival.

Following the reunification of Germany, the "Hiddensee" served with the Federal German Navy until her decommissioning in April 1991. Shortly thereafter she was reactivated and transferred to the U.S. Navy. Joined briefly by a crew of 20 former East German sailors, a small civilian U. S. crew conducted extensive testing with the vessel at the Navy's Solomons, Maryland, facility in the Patuxnet River. After 50 underway deployments in the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia Capes areas, Navy budget cutback severely curtailed operations, but she continued on as a research vessel until April 1996.

The "Hiddensee" joined the Battleship Cove fleet in Fall River, Massachusetts on June 14, 1997, where she is currently moored alongside the USS|Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr.|DD-850.

References

* http://www.battleshipcove.org - Documentatation from Battleship Cove, residence of the "Hiddensee"

External links

* [http://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/Hiddensee/index.htm Hiddensee] Photos on board the Soviet Missile Corvette Hiddensee at the Battleship Cove Naval Museum in Fall River, MA
* [http://www.hnsa.org/ships/hiddensee.htm HNSA Web Page: Hiddensee]