Project 775M (Ropucha III)

The Ropucha class (NATO reporting name, Polish for "toad"; phonetically 'Ropooha', IPA: rɔpuxa), Soviet designation Project 775, is a class of landing ship (large landing ship or Bol'shoy Desantnyy Korabl' - Russian: Большой десантный корабль (BDK - Russian: БДК) in Soviet classification) built in Poland for the Soviet Navy. The ships were built in the Stocznia Północna shipyards in Gdańsk, Poland. They were designed for beach landings, and can carry 450 tons of cargo. The ships have both bow and stern doors for loading and unloading vehicles, and the 630 square metres (6,800 sq ft) of vehicle deck stretch the length of the hull. Up to 25 armored personnel carriers can be embarked. While designed for roll-on/roll-off operations, they can also be loaded using dockside cranes. For this purpose there is a long sliding hatch-cover above the bow section for access to the vehicle deck.