Very few knows the USSR was going to build an atomic armada for struggling against the USN. Though most of the ships remained just on paper (because of the lack of money), some of them have been managed to be created.
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At those times the USA had a lot of military bases along the borders of the USSR. And the latter had absolutely been losing in the opposition against the USN. So the admirals of the Soviet Navy got a plan – to create an enormous atomic squadron headed by an aircraft carrier. But this project has never been realized.
The first heavy nuclear missile cruiser the Soviet constructors decided to start with was named “Orlan”. Nothing like that has ever been created before in the USSR, though there was some experience in this field.
Nuclear ships has been a dream for the Soviet admirals since 1957 when “Long Beach”, the first fighting surface ship with the reactor was created.
“Orlan”
So the works on creating an alike heavy nuclear cruiser (named “Poject 63″) began with great enthusiasm. It was expected to finish the building of the 7 such cruisers by 1964.
From 18 to 24 strategic cruise missiles P-20 should have been its main impact power. The length of the missile was expected to be 21 m, the swing of the wings – 7.25 m, the weight – 30 tons, the range – 3000 km. But neither the nuclear cruise, nor this fantastic missile has ever come into the world. In 1958 the works have been stopped. But the idea of creating a nuclear armada continued to exist.
In 1973 the heavy nuclear missile cruiser “Orlan” was designed. It wasn’t very huge but still had some disadvantages. The Soviet admirals wanted to make it versatile and arm it with any possible weapons. As a result the mine-sweep equipment has been missed.
At the same time the Soviet Navy got a little bit huge but very powerful ships. The first one “Kirov” (afterwards renamed as “Admiral Ushakov”) was launched in 1977, the second one “Frunze” (“Admiral Lazarev”) – in 1984, the third one “Kalinin” (“Admiral Nahimov”) – in 1988 and the last one “Peter the Great” – in 1998. From all these ships only “Peter the Great” is in use now. It’s a wonderful ship intended for aircraft carriers destroying.
“Frunze”
The Americans got concerned because the destruction of such a ship would take away 4 aircraft carrier battle groups at a time that would definitely cost a huge amount of money.
Some other heavy nuclear missile cruisers were expected to be built but by the time of the breakup of the USSR they all hadn’t been finished and that was the end of the whole story.
“Peter the Great”
via svpressa
I am very happy the Cold War has ended!
I’m not.
millitary equipment huge waste of human resuorces and money so i’m right behind you :]
Interesting radar on the Kapusta class SSV-33. Never seen it without the radome.
us old folks who lived half of our lives stressed out every day that if war broke out we would all perish,we were the ones that got to breath the deepest relief. No won will ever forget how happy we were when the cold war ended.
Russian and the US shouldn’t worry about each other as much as they should worry about China.
I agree. With India, we’re going to be smothered to death by billions of people spilling across borders.
Seconded
In ze Soviet Russia, oversized navy sinks your shaky Communist economy!
I’m seasick.
The submarines are the backbone of the Soviet/Russian navy.
Any informative commentys?
No, but I liked the Soviet names more.
Thats a lot of metal!
I spent couple weeks on ‘Admiral Ushakov’ during my navy practice. It’s a pretty impressive ship, alas not seaworthy anymore.
Russia is the only country with an all nuclear navy. The US put together plans to do this back in the 1950s but they never came to fruition. And just now they are looking into doing so again. It should had been done a long time ago.
i agree, yeah should of been done a long time ago
Then you wasted your time on the ship… because That ship could easily handle any small aircraft carrier and its escorts group alone ,including the new “stealth” destroyers from nato. like type 45. and keep grounded the entire desert storm air campaign ,with its 96 x s-300 missiles can shut down more than 1,000 thousands modern jets of today standars. its 20 x p-700 antiships supersonic missiles with 625km range is something that no nato country have,not even close. Is by far the most powerful warship in the world . to destroy one , i dont think US or NATO will use a warship .because its amazing defenses.most practical way is with submarines if the enemy manage to get close enough. and they are modernizing all their kirov cruisers (about 4) before 2020.
Lets reduce our nukes stockpile in a productive manner = north korea , iran , iraq , afghanistan , USA
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