The Dyugon-class landing craft, Project 21820, is a Russian air-cavity fast landing craft developed by the Nizhny Novgorod Central Design Bureau for Hydrofoils as a larger successor to the Serna family. Built across Volga, Vostochnaya Verf, and Yaroslavl shipyards, the class moves tanks, armored vehicles, cargo, or marines to unimproved shores, and Russia used Dyugon craft around Snake Island in 2022 as part of Black Sea logistics and air-defense reinforcement activity.
Russian forces used Dyugon-class Project 21820 landing craft around Snake Island during the full-scale phase of the Russia-Ukraine War. Naval News reported a Pr.21820 craft near Snake Island on 2022-05-09, while The War Zone reported 2022-06-10 satellite imagery of a Dyugon-class craft south of the island with what appeared to be a Tor air-defense system on deck.
Role detailsThe five completed Project 21820 craft were distributed across Russian fleets and shipyards rather than produced in a single yard. Open sources list Ataman Platov as the lead Caspian Flotilla craft, Ivan Kartsov as a Pacific Fleet craft, and Denis Davydov, Lieutenant Rimsky-Korsakov, and Midshipman Lermontov as Baltic Fleet craft.
| Craft | Builder | Fleet context |
|---|---|---|
| Ataman Platov | Shipbuilding Plant Volga, Nizhny Novgorod | Lead craft, commissioned in 2010 for the Caspian Flotilla. |
| Ivan Kartsov | Vostochnaya Verf, Vladivostok | Pacific Fleet craft, listed as active in the class. |
| Denis Davydov | Yaroslavl Shipyard | Baltic Fleet craft accepted into Russian Navy service in 2014. |
| Lieutenant Rimsky-Korsakov | Yaroslavl Shipyard | Baltic Fleet craft listed among the completed 2015 service group. |
| Midshipman Lermontov | Yaroslavl Shipyard | Baltic Fleet craft listed among the completed 2015 service group. |
Sources: Deagel Project 21820; GlobalSecurity Project 21820 Ship List; Dyugon-class Specs & History.
Open-source reporting from Snake Island identified air-defense equipment carried or positioned on a Dyugon-class landing craft during Russian Black Sea operations.
| Carried item | Item type | Carriage evidence |
|---|---|---|
 | Tor-family short-range air-defense system | The War Zone reported a Tor-family air-defense vehicle visible on the deck of a Dyugon-class craft south of Snake Island on 2022-06-10; the report treated the exact operating status as uncertain, so the link points to the catalog's modern Tor-family record rather than asserting a confirmed subvariant. Sources: Snake Island Reinforced By Russia With Additional Surface-To-Air Missiles |
Project 21820 uses an air-cavity hull concept rather than a conventional displacement-only landing-craft form. Public references describe compressed air under the hull as a way to reduce drag at speed, letting the craft move heavier vehicle loads than the smaller Project 11770 Serna while retaining high-speed beach-delivery performance.
GlobalMilitary and GlobalSecurity describe Dyugon as an enlarged follow-on to the Serna air-cavity landing craft family.
Sources: Dyugon-class Specs & History; GlobalSecurity Project 21820.
Sources commonly give a 120-140 ton payload class, with examples including tanks, BTR-family vehicles, troops, or mixed cargo.
Sources: Deagel Project 21820; GlobalSecurity Project 21820.
GlobalSecurity recounts 2013 Russian reporting that some Navy officials criticized hull stresses and production quality, so the high-speed payload promise came with public reliability concerns.
Source: GlobalSecurity Project 21820.
Deagel and GlobalMilitary list 2010 as the commissioning year for the lead Dyugon-class craft Ataman Platov, marking the class's entry into Russian Navy service.
Sources: Deagel Project 21820, Dyugon-class Specs & History
By 2015, open reference sources described five commissioned Dyugon-class vessels in Russian service, split among the Caspian, Baltic, and Pacific fleets and built across several shipyards.
Sources: Deagel Project 21820, Dyugon-class Specs & History
Naval News reported a Pr.21820 Dyugon-class landing craft near Snake Island and assessed it was likely attempting to deliver another SA-15 Tor air-defense system.
Sources: Naval News Snake Island Naval Operations
The War Zone reported satellite imagery of a Dyugon-class landing craft operating south of Snake Island with what appeared to be a Tor air-defense system on deck.
Sources: Snake Island Reinforced By Russia With Additional Surface-To-Air Missiles
