(SANITIZED)COMMUNICATIONS PROCEDURES AND EQUIPMENT ON A SOVIET DESTROYER AND OTHER SOVIET NAVAL VESSELS(SANITIZED)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80T00246A028000660001-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: T
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 27, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 14, 1959
• Content Type: REPORT

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TSC' NO ? `"`' ~"`'
BULLETIN NO._(_?"
This material contains -information affecting the National Defense of the -United States within the meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title
18, U.S.C. Sete. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelationForFwtichin~eny,manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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SUBJECT Communications Procedures and Equipment DATE DISTR. 14 October 1959
on a Soviet Destroyer
and Other Soviet. Naval Vessels NO. PAGES 4
REFERENCES RD
DATE OF
INFO.
PLACE &
DATE ACQ.
SOURCE EVALUATIONS ARE DEFINITIVE. APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
1. The radio receiving center of the Project 30-bis ("SKORYY-class") destroyer
contained one Rusalka (Mermaid) receiver, three Khmel 25X1
all-wave transmitter called Uran (Uranium), which was used primarily for
short.?wave,.and switchbo rtis which permitted connecting the receivers and
transmitters with other-posts, such as the bridge.and combat information
point (BIP--boyevyy informatsionnyy punkt). The entire receiving center
radio complex was referred to as "R-609". Rusalka hada.sensitivity of
not less than two to three microvolts and cost 1,600,000 rubles; the;:'Khmel
was a more common type of receiver which cost only several thousand. rubles.
Rusalka operated in the 10 - 200 meter band, for.trse and voice reception.
It can shift automatically to any of twelve frequency ranges and auto-
matically tune to. the best signal. It was' the largest receiver aboard
(Hops) receivers:, an Akatsiya (Acacia)''VHF radiotelephone.:, a small reserve
approximately 70 by 70 by 70 centimeters. There were 25X1
several .versions' of Rusalka. -
2. The transmitting center had two transmitters,. a 1.2-kw Neptun (Neptune) and
a 250-watt Lira-D (Lyre-D); "D" stands for Diskretnik (discrete). 'Crystals
could be used with the Lira-D.. One of the ship's, three Akatsiya VHF r dio-
telephones was. 'also located in the transmitting. center,. as was a reser e
all-wave receiver. 0 ship also had.a'radio relay shack,equipped
with two receivers and.a,switchboard to all points. This was a loudspeaker
system used for propaganda and.cultural purposes.
the most important item of communications equipment
was a rapid-communication.apparatus (apparatura bystro-
deystruyushchey svyazi)'called Biryuza(Turquoise). This was not a.
transmitter or receiver, but could be used with any medium or high frequency
receiver or transmitter to send any type of 'message under almost any
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circumstances. The Rusalka receiver and Lira-D',,transmitter ere most
frequently used with Biryuza; it was never'used with Akatsiya. Two
Biryuzas were one on the bridge and the
other near the receiving center, both connected in parallel.
4. Biryuza.was used by all Soviet cruisers., all Project 56 ("KOTLIN-class")
and Project 30-bis ("SKORYY-class") destroyers, Project 611 ("Z-class"),
Project 642 ("F-class"), and.some Project 613 ("W-class") submarines,
all communications ships, some smaller vessels, and all Navy communi-
cations shore stations l It is not used by aircraft.
This equipment has never been seen by foreigners, but the Poles have
older models of similar equipment. Biryuza shore stations were located
at Litpa,,,l'a, ,Riga.. Kr.Q shtadt,- Lenin ad, Baltiysk, Kaliningrad, and
Swinoujscie; the main station was.Komintern in Moscow; no station was
located at Gdynia.
ti5.. Biryuza was transistorized and used printed circuits. The Biryuzasignal
(burst) had a duration.of several tens of microseconds e...g. twenty-
seven microseconds.;
Submarines used 1 kw transmitters and
could employ Biryuza only when surfaced, or possibly at periscope depth
.with the antenna raised. Powerful shore stations under a special
Moscow directorate communic.te with submerged submarines on.very low
frequencies. Biryuza,could be used shore-to-ship, but shore stations
generally sent by Morse instead of using Biryuza.
Biryuza was referred to in communications as Amur (Amur), followed by
a one-digit number which designated the frequency in use.
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There were several types of Biryuza, known as Biryuza-1, Biryuza-2
and Bir An improved Biryuza-type apparatus has been built and tested, in order
to reduce even further the number of microseconds required for trans-
mitting a signal. Biryuza was installed on Baltic Fleet vessels,
particularly cruisers, in late 1955, at Balisk and Kronahtadt.
Chief petty officers (starshina) were
sent to production facilities to study the equipment and learn to
maintain it and instruct other personnel in its use. Biryuza was.
out of.service quite a lot during the early period of its use aboard
.ship because of the operators' lack of familiarity with it, but it
is now entirely reliable and operates with almost no breakdowns,
even after gunnery practice.
a new type of transistorized equipment called the VHF
aboard The telescopic antenna support
for this equipment to be s reng ened.and bracingiimprovisad on
the mast, because the antenna oscillated as much as five meters in
rough weather. It had sliding tuning (akolzyashchiy diapazon) which
could cover the VHF range automatically, and an indicator gave the
bearing of any VHF transmission intercepted. Audibility was excellent,
and the audibility range was greater than that of the Akatsiya. The
strength of the signal made it possible to determine the approximate
distance of the transmitter; if the transmitter's power output was
(UKV) radio direction finder (ukaveynyy radiopelengator) was placed
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8. The installation and testing of this direction-finder were performed
by a group of specialists from a Ministry of Defense communications
institute in Lend ad. This institute had Army, Air.Force, and Navy
departments, and-worked on both civil and military electronic equip-
ment. The group from the institute consisted of eight persons, in-
cluding a colonel and lieutenant colonel, and .was headed by Engineer
decided to order such equipment. The transmissions of
Soviet ships were monitored during the tests.
known, the distance could be determined fairly precisely. This equip-
ment was developed for Army, but the tests were so successful
Captain First Rank Dyachenko. J
Cruisers had a top secret decimetric radiotelephone called Shlyupka
(Boat) which could be used for secure conversations in the clear with
any point in the USSR. It transmitted on a very narrow beam with a
range of eight to ten nautical miles from ship to shore and then
followed regular telephone lines. It could be used with the VCh
(vysokaya chastota) secure radiotelephone Ytet, and was like that net,
not like Akatsiya, since Akatsiya was a circular transmission which
could be heard all around. Shlyupka came into service in the last
two years; it could not be used ship-to-ship, but only by prear=
rangement with a shore station which was at a precisely known geo-
graphical point. Audibility on Shlyupka was excellent, perhaps .a
little harsh, but it was not necessary to talk loud when using it.
A normal dial telephone was used with it.. Cruisers also carried
permanently installed intercept and direction-finding equipment, and
intelligence officers occasionally placed such equipment on other
vessels. The cruiser SVERDLOV had new cipher equipment which was
installed for ship-to-shore and shore-to-ship
communications; the cruiser ORDZHONIKIDZE.was also to get this equip-
ment, which might be used with Biryuza. Destroyers and submarines did
not have cipher machines, only cruisers and Fleet Headquarters, but
there was talk of placing such machines of a smaller size aboard one
or two ships of a.destroyer brigade, such as the flagship and.second
ship.
10. Three watches were) Norse watch, radio- 25X1
telephone watch, andBiryuza watch. If Biryuza was out of order, tele-
graph was used,: then radiotelephone. The control point was the radio
shack, where the watch was set, and the radioman served as a check on
the watch officer or communications officer. A recorder such as was
used with sonar was used to record everything that came in, and it
could also be used to transmit. 'Transmitters always worked at minimum
power,- and.all radios were turned off when in port.
11. The only persons-permitted in the radio rooms.were the captain, senior
assistant to the captain, the radio officer,. the watch officer, and
.radiomen. Only the captain and cipher clerk entered the cipher shack.
The cipher clerk was a-chief petty officer (starshina); prior to 1950
officers acted as cipher clerks. Messages were released by the captain
or radio officer. When the captain wished to send a message he called
the cipher clerk, who would bring him the message forms. The captain
wrote the message and ordered it to be enciphered. When it was
enciphered the clerk called to.ask permission to send it. The captain
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TOP SECRET
submarines could communicate with aircraft only via shore stations.
could also leave instructions with an officer on the bridge that the
message be sent as soon as it was enciphered, or might in unusual
circumstances tell the clerk to send the message as soon as it was
enciphered, without calling the captain for permission. If a message
were for Moscow it would be sent to the nearest shore station and.
relayed from there; the clerk knew how to prepare the message for
whatever addressee was, to receive it. The precedence of messages was
routine, urgent, extremely urgent, or flash (vozdukh or V Z D).
P
The Navy operated control stations which monitored all transmissions
by naval vessels to watch for violations of communications security.
Ships were directed to operate within specific radio networks, and
all these networks were monitored around the clock by the watch at the
control stations. There were other control stations which intercepted
enemy communications; these stations were sometimes subordinate to the
Navy and sometimes subordinate to some other office.
When a violation of the rules 25X1
for radio traffic occurred the Fleet Communications Department called
it to the attention of the Chief of Communications, who reported it
to the Chief of Staff. The offending vessel received a notice of the
violation if it was minor, but more drastic measures were taken by
higher offices if the violation was more serious.
13. Cipher matters were controlled by the 8th Department (otdel) of Fleet
Headquarters (Shtab flota). Squadrons had flag cryrptographers, and
occasionally such. specialists were assigned to brigades. At least,.,
one cipher clerk was assigned to.each ship. They were trained at
Lomonosov (formerly Oranienbaum) in.a naval school. controlled by the
8th Directorate (upravleniye).of the Navy, not by the KGB. Radiomen
were trained at Kronshtadt,u;4lino, etc., and radar operators were
trained at Mamonovo, near K-414ingrad. `sThe ship's captain was the
only person besides the cipher{clerk who had access to cipher material-
an extra set of ciphers was kept in the'captain's personal safe, under
seal. Persons with access to ciphers received special clearance
(dopusk) from the KGB Special Department (Osobyy otdel ;
1. /equated the Soviet project numbers with the_rbitrary
designations in parentheses
TCD CCrDCT
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