Neptune wrote:
I agree with Peppe, there is just a simple hatch, above the chine. Here is a close-up of Frunze's hatch. Notice the rust trail on the aft lower edge of the hatch.

Yes. It looks like just a simple hatch that hinge outward. There is a hint of a crease right under the chine line on the Frunze, just like on the Pyotr Velikey. I think this is what made it look to me at first sight like the edge of the hatch is in fact below the chine line. I should have known the siren song of trumpeter being right once for a change was too dangerous to be drawn to. Apologies to the builder of the model of PV shown above.
I wonder why there is a crease there below the door on both ships. I suspect the deck is actually at the level of the crease, the create is an artifact of welding the deck to the hull side, and the hatch is actually above a low bulwurk some distance off the deck.
Anyway, I am trying to think ifof a realistic way I can make a working hatch door on my model that would look right when closed. Reproducing the tightness of the door seam is much harder if the hinge is actually at the top edge of the door then if it is behind the door.
Neptune wrote:
Vodopad doesn't really swim as far as I know. She ejects, levels out and ignites its rocket engine. It therefore has to be ejected with enough force for that whole process to take place (and in order not to ignite its engine not too close to the ship)..
The video posted by Sauragnmon seem to show the missile is ejected with only moderate force and drops into water just like a torpedo, and then some seconds later, after the missile presumably orients itself (by bouyancy?) to point its nose up, the rocket motor fires and the missile takes off more or less vertically before leveling off in the direction of the target. This behavior makes sense since SS-N-15 is also used as submarine launched weapon, so it has to swim before taking off from the surface.
AFAIK, there is little performance and effectiveness advantage to SS-N-15 compared to SS-N-14. Both have similar range, speed, and deploy the same terminal weapons at the end of their flights to attack submarines. The main difference is where as SS-N-14 requires special launchers and can only be fired from surface ships, SS-N-15 uses torpedo tubes and can be fired form both submarines and surface ships. So SS-N-15 affords greater commonality and logistic simplicity. SS-N-14 also has a secondary anti-surface role which I believe SS-N-15 can't fullfill. But AFAIK no one takes SS-N-14 seriously as an anti-ship weapon.
So logistics may be the main reason for switching over from SS-N-14 to SS-N-15 in new built ships. This reason may not be strong enough to modify existing, perfectly functional ships like the Udaloy I in Russia's current budgetary and threat environment, especially is existing inventory of SS-N-14 is sufficient to meet their needs.