History
United States
Name	USSNucleus (AM-268)
Builder	Gulf Shipbuilding Corporation,Chickasaw, Alabama
Laid down	7 September 1942
Launched	12 June 1943
Sponsored by	Mrs. V. Ludwig
Commissioned	12 December 1943
Decommissioned	21 May 1945[1]
Fate	Transferred toSoviet Navy, 21 May 1945[1]
Reclassified	MSF-268, 7 February 1955
Stricken	1 January 1983[citation needed]
History
Soviet Union
Name	T-278[2]
Acquired	21 May 1945[1]
Commissioned	21 May 1945[1]
Refit	Converted tonaval trawler, 1948[citation needed]
Renamed	Uragan, 1948[citation needed]
Honors & awards	Guards rank and ensign, 26 August 1945[citation needed]
Fate	Scrapped 1960[3]
General characteristics
Class & type	Admirable-class minesweeper
Displacement	650 tons
Length	184 ft 6 in (56.24 m)
Beam	33 ft (10 m)
Draft	9 ft 9 in (2.97 m)
Propulsion	2 × ALCO 539diesel engines, 1,710 shp (1.3 MW) Farrel-Birminghamsingle reduction gear 2 shafts
Speed	14.8 knots (27.4 km/h)
Complement	104
Armament	1 ×3-inch/50-caliber gun DP 2 × twinBofors 40 mm guns 1 ×Hedgehoganti-submarinemortar 2 ×depth charge tracks
Service record
Part of:	United States Atlantic Fleet (1943–1945) Soviet Pacific Ocean Fleet (1945–1960)

USSNucleus (AM-268) was anAdmirable-classminesweeper built for theUnited States Navy during World War II and in commission from 1943 to 1945. In 1945, she was transferred to theSoviet Union and after that served in theSoviet Navy asT-278. The Soviets converted her into anaval trawler in 1948^{[citation needed]} and renamed herUragan.^{[citation needed]}

Nucleus waslaid down atChickasaw, Alabama, by theGulf Shipbuilding Corporation on 7 September 1942,launched on 26 June 1943, sponsored by Mrs. V. Ludwig, andcommissioned on 11 February 1944.

Followingshakedown in theChesapeake Bay,Nucleus served briefly as an escort vessel to the Caribbean, then on 20 April 1944 proceeded toBoston. From Boston, she escorted aconvoy toNaval Station Argentia in theDominion of Newfoundland, arriving there on 6 May 1944. After another escort run between Boston and Argentia, she took upmeteorological information collection duties in the North Atlantic Ocean. Between 10 and 24 June 1944 a platform deck for launchingradiosonde gear andweather balloons was added to hersilhouette to make her more effective as aweather ship. Relieved of weather duties by hersister shipUSS Penetrate on 7 October 1944,Nucleus returned to Boston, then steamed toNorfolk, Virginia, arriving there on 25 November 1944.

During December 1944Nucleusswept mines and conductedantisubmarine warfare patrols off the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. In January 1945 she conducted another Caribbean escort run, and on 2 February 1945 she departed Norfolk, escorting thegasoline (petrol)tankerUSS Tetonkaha toNavassa Island. Detached on 8 February 1945, she continued on to thePanama Canal Zone and transited thePanama Canal for duty in the Pacific.

Selected for transfer to theSoviet Navy inProject Hula – a secret program for the transfer of U.S. Navy ships to the Soviet Navy atCold Bay, Territory of Alaska, in anticipation of theSoviet Union joining thewar against Japan –Nucleus arrived at Cold Bay on 3 April 1945 to begin familiarization training of her new Soviet crew.^[3]

Following the completion of training for her Soviet crew,Method wasdecommissioned on 21 May 1945^[1] at Cold Bay and transferred to the Soviet Union underLend-Lease immediately.^[1] Also commissioned into the Soviet Navy immediately,^[1] she was designated as atralshik ("minesweeper") and renamedT-278^[2] in Soviet service. She soon departed Cold Bay bound forPetropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in the Soviet Union,^[3] where she entered service with the SovietPacific Ocean Fleet on 17 June 1945. After the Soviet Union entered thewar against Japan on 8 August 1945,T-278 took part in the Sovietamphibious landings atChongjin, Korea, on 18 August 1945 and atMaoka in the Japanese province ofKarafuto on southernSakhalin Island on 20 August 1945.

In February 1946, the United States began negotiations for the return of ships loaned to the Soviet Union for use during World War II, and on 8 May 1947,United States Secretary of the NavyJames V. Forrestal informed theUnited States Department of State that theUnited States Department of the Navy wanted 480 of the 585 combatant ships it had transferred to the Soviet Union for World War II use returned. Deteriorating relations between the two countries as theCold War broke out led to protracted negotiations over the ships, and by the mid-1950s the U.S. Navy found it too expensive to bring home ships that had become worthless to it anyway. Many ex-American ships were merely administratively "returned" to the United States and instead sold for scrap in the Soviet Union, while the U.S. Navy did not seriously pursue the return of others because it viewed them as no longer worth the cost of recovery.^[4] The Soviet Union never returnedNucleus to the United States, instead converting her into anaval trawler in 1948^{[citation needed]} and renaming herUragan.^{[citation needed]} Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy reclassified her as a "fleet minesweeper" (MSF) and redesignated herMSF-268 on 7 February 1955.

The ship was scrapped in 1960.^[3] Unaware of her fate, the U.S. Navy keptNucleus on itsNaval Vessel Register until finally striking her on 1 January 1983.^{[citation needed]}

The Soviet Union awardedT-278 theGuards rank and ensign on 26 August 1945 for her service during the August 1945 Soviet offensive against the Japanese.^{[citation needed]}

•  This article incorporates text from thepublic domainDictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be foundhere.
• "Nucleus".NavSource. Retrieved18 February 2008.

• Admirable-class minesweepers
• Ships built in Chickasaw, Alabama
• 1943 ships
• World War II minesweepers of the United States
• Admirable-class minesweepers of the Soviet Navy
• World War II minesweepers of the Soviet Union
• Cold War minesweepers of the Soviet Union
• Trawlers of the Soviet Navy
• Cold War patrol vessels of the Soviet Union
• Weather ships
• Ships transferred under Project Hula

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