Hämeenmaa was a Finnish

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

 . The class was called the Hämeenmaa-class in Finland since the ship had some unique modifications (i.e. British submarine hunting equipment). The two 37 mm twin guns were also replaced with two 40 mm single AA guns in 1975.

Hämeenmaa was rebuilt into a minelayer

Minelayer

Minelaying is the act of deploying explosive mines. Historically this has been carried out by ships, submarines and aircraft. Additionally, since World War I the term minelayer refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines...

 in the 1980s. A communications central replaced the Hedgehog

Hedgehog (weapon)

The Hedgehog was an anti-submarine weapon developed by the Royal Navy during World War II, that was deployed on convoy escort warships such as destroyers to supplement the depth charge. The weapon worked by firing a number of small spigot mortar bombs from spiked fittings...

 mounting. The torpedo tubes were removed. A bow twin 30 mm AK-230 was added. Hämeenmaa was decommissioned in 1985.

Operational service

The Hämeenmaas were acquired from the Soviet Union in the mid-1960s, to be used as gun training ships. They formed the "Escort Flotilla" together with the Nuoli class fast gunboats.

The commissioning of the Turunmaa and Karjala in the late 1960s led however to personnel shortages in the Finnish Navy (Finland had a naval manpower restriction after WW2) and the navy was forced to limit the use of its two Hämeenmaa frigates. They were initially used one at a time and finally decided to retire them.

Hämeenmaa was in Finnish Navy

Finnish Navy

The Finnish Navy is one of the branches of the Finnish Defence Forces. The Navy employs 2,300 people and about 4,300 conscripts are trained each year. Finnish Navy vessels are given the ship prefix "FNS" simply short for "Finnish Navy Ship"...

service between 1964-1985. The sister ship Uusimaa was decommissioned in 1979 and cannibalized for spare parts for the Hämeenmaa. Both ships had already served a few years in the Soviet Navy before sale to Finland.