The Beriev Be-12 Tchaika (Seagull) is remarkable in being the only major flying-boat in service during the later years of the Cold War and today. It was originally conceived as a replacement for the Be-6 piston-engined amphibian but with significant changes including a redesigned hull, nose-mounted radar and a pair of turboprop engines replacing its predecessor's radials. The Be-12 was optimized for the anti-submarine warfare role and, as such, featured a prominent magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) boom on the tail although it was quite capable for other duties including search-and-rescue and surveillance as well as secondary missions inlcuding Artic and Siberian resource exploration, geophysical mapping, and firefighting all of which have figured more prominently ever since it began to be replaced as an ASW platform by the Il-38 and Tu-142. Over the course of its service life (which, remarkably continues in Russia, the Ukraine, and Vietnam), the Be-12 has broken over forty performance records for its class making it one of the finest flying-boats ever made.

The prototype Be-12 first flew on 18 October 1960 and was seen by the West during the Soviet Aviation Day airshow the following year. It entered service with that same designation with no other major ASW variants built although it was constantly upgraded with newer systems throughout its service life. Variants built for other roles include the Be-12P for firefighting duties and the Be-12PS for search-and-rescue, both of which had most of their ASW equipment removed. About a dozen remain in service with Russia.