ABSTRACT
The Soviet Navy's continuing interest in small combatants is nothing more than a refection of its fundamental sea denial role. At a time when Soviet industry was unable to build sophisticated major warships, small coastal defense combatants could be built quickly and in large numbers. Yet today, while the Soviet shipyards are building some of the largest combatants, new small combatant designs continue to appear, leading to the conclusion that the small combatant is not being built out of necessity. The weakness of all small combatants is their inability to operate far from the coast and, in bad weather, the small hull quickly loses speed because of the violent action of wind and waves. As rolling and pitching become more violent the efficiency of the crew falls off, with the inevitable result that the unit's fighting efficiency is impaired. The minor combatant inventory for the Western fleets and their distribution among the Northern, Baltic and Black Sea fleets are tabulated.
