The Yurka class were a group of minesweepers 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 export customers between 1963 and 1970. The Soviet designation was Project 266 Rubin.

Design

A new ocean minesweeper design was requested in 1957 to follow the T43 class minesweeper into the Soviet Navy. The design was approved in 1959 and entered service in 1963. Major improvements in mine detection and anti mine explosion protection were implemented. Magnetic , acoustic and electric signatures were reduced. The hull was built of low magnetic steel.

Soviet Navy

About 41 ships were built for the Soviet Navy, One ship was lost to an accidental explosion in the Black Sea in 1989. All the Ships were decommissioned by the mid-1990s