The T43 class were a group of minesweepers

Minesweeper (ship)

A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...

 built for the Soviet Navy

Soviet Navy

The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...

 and Soviet allies in the 1950s and 1960s. The Soviet designation was Project 254.

Design

The design specification was issued in 1946 and the design was approved in 1948. The ships were built with steel hulls which were degaussed but no specific attempt was made to reduce electrical or acoustic signature. Several versions were produced:

• Project 254 K (1952)- new MT-2 minesweeping gear, fitted with radar

• Project 254 M (1955)- deep mechanical sweep, acoustic and magnetic sweeps, more modern ASW mortars, 25mm guns replace 12.7mm machine guns, variable pitch propellers

• Project 245 A (1957) - provided with NBC protection, with pressurised central space to keep out fall out

• Project 513 - patrol boat for the Border Guard

• Project 254 PGR - radar picket
  Radar picket
  A radar picket is a radar-equipped ship, submarine, aircraft, or vehicle used to increase the radar detection range around a force to protect it from surprise attack. Often several detached radar units encircle a force to provide increased cover in all directions.-World War II:Radar picket ships...
  
   version fitted with a Knife Rest or Big Net radar installation - 20 conversions from 1956

Ships

A total of 178 ships were built

• Kamysh Borun yard Kerch built 61 ships
• Polish yards built 12 ships
• Izhora Leningrad built over 100
• About 20 were built under licence in China

Exports

• Albania - 2 ships (1960)
• Algeria - 2 ships (1968)
• Bulgaria - 3 ships (1953)
• China - 4 ships 1955 (plus 20 built in China as the Type 010 class minesweeper
  Type 010 class minesweeper
  The Type 010 class minesweeper is the Chinese version of the Soviet T-43 class oceangoing minesweeper. The origin of this class rooted from the need to solve the typical problem of minesweepers: due to the special need of the mine countermeasure requirement, minesweeper is most expensive type of...
  
  )
• Cuba - 3 ships
• Egypt - 7 ships (1962)
• Indonesia - 6 ships (1962)
• Iraq - 2 ships 1969
• Poland - built 12 ships under licence
• Syria - 2 ships

All ships are believed to have been retired.