RFS Admiral Lisitsyn

The **RFS *Admiral Lisitsyn*** (Russian: ***Адмирал Лисицын***) is a fictional warship that appears in the *Foxtrot: Foxes in Arms* series. It is a member of the *Sovremenny*-class guided-missile destroyers, Soviet designation Project 956 *Sarych* (buzzard), that is currently in service with the Russian Navy. The ship is under the command of Captain 1st Rank Aleksandr Kolesnikov.

## Characteristics

### General Characteristics

The *Admiral Lisitsyn* is a fictional member of the real *Sovremenny*-class guided-missile destroyers, or the Project 956 *Sarych* (buzzard) under the Soviet Union. This class of destroyer was designed by the Soviet Navy in the 1960s and 1970s and built in the 1980s and 1990s as anti-aircraft and anti-ship destroyers. These ships were tasked with anti-ship warfare, while also providing sea and air defense for warships and transports under escort, also complimenting the *Udaloy*-class destroyers which are primarily in the anti-submarine role. Based on the specifications of the real *Sovremenny*-class ships, the *Admiral Lisitsyn* is 156 meters (511 feet 10 inches) long, 17.3 meters (56 feet 9 inches) wide in the beam, and 6.5 meters (21 feet 4 inches). The ship would have a standard displacement of 6,600 tons and would displace 8,000 tons fully loaded. In an age of ships being powered by diesel or gas-turbine engines, the destroyer is powered by four boilers and is propelled by two propeller shafts driven by steam turbines producing 100,000 horse power (75,000 kW). This would push the ship to a top speed of 32.7 knots (60.6 km/h; 37.6 mph), which is decently fast for a ship that size, and has a range of up to 3,920 nmi (7,260 km; 4,510 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). The ship has a total crew count of 350 officers and enlisted, and has a single helipad for landing one Kamov Ka-27 'Helix' helicopter.

### Armament

As the *Admiral Lisitsyn* is a destoyer, the armament is a bit on the lighter side. She has two twin-mounted AK-130 130 mm (5.1 inch) guns as the primary armament and as many as four AK-630 six-barreled 30 mm Gatling gun Close-In Weapon Systems (CIWS) for point defense. Some concept art depicts the ship with several Kortik, or Kashtan CWIS units. For anti-ship warfare, the ship has as many as eight P-270 Moskit supersonic anti-ship missiles, known by NATO as the SS-N-22 'Sunburn'. These missiles can travel as fast as Mach 2 or even Mach 3 and has a range of 120–250 km (75–155 mi). And for anti-aircraft combat, the ship has as many as 48 surface-to-air missiles, which are the 3S90 'Uragan' missiles, the naval variation of the Buk SAM system, also known as the SA-N-7 'Gadfly' by NATO. These missiles have a top range of 25 km (16 mi). Rounding out the total armaments of the ship are the anti-submarine weapons, two double 533 mm torpedo tube launchers and two sextuple RBU-1000 anti-submarine rocket launchers with a range of 1,000 meters (1,100 yd).

### Sensors

The ship has a number of different radars for targeting potential threats, including air target acquisition radars and gun fire control radars for the AK-130 main guns and AK-630 CIWS. One 3D radar system used is the Mineral system ('Band Stand') to allow the SS-N-22 guidance onto enemy ships. She also has a MGK-355 Platina, or Bull Horn, sonar suite including the MG-335 hull-mounted array for detecting underwater targets.

## History

### Early History, Service with the Soviet Navy

The ship was built in the early 1980s, when the Soviet Union was still active, having been launched in November 1984 and entering service on September 15, 1986. Specifically, the ship was built at the Zhdanov Shipyard, which is now known as Severnaya Verf in Saint Petersburg in Russia. Back then, the ship was named ***Zashchitnik*** (Russian: ***Защитник*** - ***Defender***) and held the pennant number 401. Shortly after commissioning, *Zashchitnik* was assigned to the Northern Fleet where most of her career was fairly quiet apart from the periodic showing of US Navy and NATO assets or them shadowing her and her fleet. By the early 1990s, the Soviet Navy was a bit in a state of disarray, and this wasn't all that much help with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. *Zashchitnik* was among many ships and submarines that were laid up for a while and was soon in hardly any shape to do battle should the need arise.

### Russian Navy Service

By 1993, *Zashchitnik* was officially inherited by the new Russian Navy, and spent an extended period of time undergoing repairs and being evaluated for viable service. She was in service and steaming again by the end of the year. The ship gave many years of faithful service upon being repaired and gained a reputation of being one of the best-maintained and well-crewed ships of the Northern Fleet, apart from the larger ships like fleet flagship *Pyotr Velikiy*. In 2004, after completing a successful live fire exercise, *Zashchitnik* underwent an extensive overhaul that updated many of her systems. Upon coming out of it, and following an official ceremony, *Zashchitnik* was officially renamed to *Admiral Lisitsyn*, and her number was changed to 445, the one she wears today.

Many years of continued service later, an arctic fox named Aleksander Kolesnikov, better known as Alek, was appointed as the ship's captain. He was proving himself as being an effective leader, and Russian naval command had taken notice, and was awarded command of the destroyer as a reward for his years of service and effectiveness at his duties. Elsewhere in the world, the country of Urocyia was undergoing a buildup of military forces under the direction of Arian Torres and his gang, the Urocyan Dynasty. The *Admiral Lisitsyn* was mostly involved with conducting further naval exercises with the Northern Fleet. At one point, this included a run in with US Navy forces while they were conducting their own buildup.

In accordance with a mutual treaty between Russia and Urocyia, a number of Russian forces were sent to help train Urocyan military units in effective operations. A small detachment of Russian navy forces, including the destroyer *Admiral Lisitsyn*, were sent to perform naval exercises with ships of the Urocyan Imperial Naval Forces. Alek would prove to be a good teacher, despite his own disinterest in working with the Urocyans fearing that they'd use what they learned to one day attack Russia. When war broke out between Urocyia and the United States, Russia was officially stated as neutral, but continued supplying several weapons to the Urocyan military with the assurance that they would not be attacked.

## Known Crew

* Captain 1st rank Aleksander "Alek" Kolesnikov - Commanding Officer (CO)

## Trivia

* The ship was originally named *Vladimir K. Konovalov* and held the number 475, but has since been changed for the sake of the official backstory of Captain Kolesnikov.
	+ This original name was based on an actual Russian naval officer, Rear Admiral Vladimir Konstantinovich Konovalov (1911-1967) who served in the submarine service, and also from a fictitious *Alfa*-class nuclear attack submarine *V.K. Konovalov* as depicted in the book-turned-movie *Hunt for Red October*.
* Lisitsyn is a Russian masculine surname that has a fox-related meaning. This is a sort of a nod to the series itself and the title.
* The ship uses the prefix "RFS", which stands for Russian Federation Ship. This designation is not used internally by the Russian Navy but is used by NATO for reasons of international identification.

## External Links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisitsyn#:~:text=Lisitsyn%20or%20Lisitsin%20(Russian%3A%20%D0%9B%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B8%D1%86%D1%8B%D0%BD,samovar%2Dmakers%2C%20metalworkers%20and%20businesspeople

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovremenny-class\_destroyer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship\_prefix#National\_or\_military\_prefixes