Russian Aircraft Carriers

The notion that a country could develop and eventually, field an aircraft carrier ask force is seen by most observers as a major step to claim power projection beyond that country's international borders. It is the measuring stick of the country's naval force capability. The Soviet Union began its aircraft carrier program much later that it’s Western counterparts. In the beginning, the Soviet carrier program started slowly, a fact attributed to the unique mixture of historical precedents and the reining political circumstances surrounding the USSR in the post World War II years. Admirals and mid-level officials in the Soviet Union's Navy commenced to discuss the possibility of developing an aircraft carrier platform as early as the late 1930s. But at that time the USSR was in the mist of the Five Year Plan, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's effort to industrialize the whole country, thus all the available funding went to the Plan, little if anything was left for long term military projects. But the idea of matching the Western Powers sea fleets with carriers of their own was a powerful persuader and is rumored that Stalin approved the development and eventual construction of two carriers in late 1939. However, the Great Patriotic War intervened and those plans, if they ever existed, were shelved in favor of more pressing needs, officially ending any Soviet effort to deploy a carrier force in the 1940s.When the war ended in 1945, the Soviets placed massive amounts of resources on investigating and analyzing the role played by the United States carrier task force during its war against the Japanese in the vast Pacific Theater. They interpreted that the carrier can indeed be a powerful power projection platform. Orders were giving to Soviet shipyards to commence preliminary studies about the feasibility of the USSR building a carrier force comparable to the US, but as before, external factors intervene to thwart the effort. In the immediate post war years, the Soviet Union was in the enormous process of rebuilding the nation from the devastation of the German invasion, thus available funds for long term programs were again scarce. What ever funds were available usually went to support the massive Soviet Army present in Eastern Europe. As the post war years passed, the financial situation in the USSR improved and plans were once again crafted for the construction of a carrier fleet in the early 1950s, unfortunately for the Soviet Navy, Stalin died in 1953, and his successor, Nikita Khrushchev, did not inherit Stalin's appetite for a forward power projection platform; instead he supported massive Soviet efforts to built the world's largest missile force. Once again the Soviet Navy's objective of fielding a carrier was postponed. The situation changed when Khrushchev was forced out of power and Brezhnev assumed the leadership of the country.After his ascension, Brezhnev commenced a major re-armament and modernization effort of all of the USSR armed forces. This was the opening needed by the Soviet Admirals. The first Soviet carrier keel was laid at the Nikolayev South Shipyard No. 144. The first ship of what was expected to be a five ship class, took to the sea in 1965. The vessel was named Moska and two years later, she was commissioned into the Soviet Navy. Moska was followed by Leningrad three years later, in 1968. The Moska-class of carriers was not similar to its Western counterparts. It was built to carry only rotary wing helicopters. Their primary mission profile was anti-submarine warfare. Following a long standing Soviet Navy tradition, the Moska-class was saturated with a vast array of weapon systems such as twin SUWN-1 launchers fitted to deploy the FARS-1 projectile that can carry a 450mm torpedo with or without a nuclear warhead. Two RuB-6000 antisubmarine mortars were also installed. For air defense the Moskas relied on the SAN3 surface-to-air missile system. These systems were augmented by a pair of 57mm heavy guns. Although the Moskas proved to be a semi-successful venture, the Soviet Navy wanted more out, thus Navy engineers began to develop the next carrier platform almost at the same time as the Leningrad was put to sea. The new carrier design was the most advance and technical challenging vessel platform the Soviet had ever design. Project Orel would have been culmination of the intense years of research. The propose aircraft carrier would have been powered by a nuclear reactor and its displacement was estimated at around 80,000 tons. Up to seventy conventional, fix-wing aircrafts could have been accommodated inside the giant superstructure. These aircraft would have served as fighter, attack and early warning platforms for fleet defense. The man behind the whole Orel program was Soviet Defense Minister, Marshall Grechko. Grechko envisioned a carrier force capable of matching against the best of America’s super carriers. Un-factually for the Orel program, Grechko die and his successor at the Ministry, Marshall Ustinov, worried about the massive investment of Navy funds into the project; canceled the complete program. Instead of trying to match the US on super carrier vessels, Ustinov switched the Navy’s carrier building program in order to focus on the smaller and less expensive vertical take-off and landing aircraft carrier deck vessel, of which the famous Kiev class were to be the first. The Kiev was an extremely agile VTOL and helicopter carrier. It was powered by a conventional, steam-supply engine. Due to the small size of the super structure and its deck, the Kiev class was only able to carry a small contingent of Yak-38 Forger VTOL fighters augmented by twenty rotary aircrafts. The small number of Yak-38 available on any given time for combat air patrol made around the clock air operations with the Soviet fleet impossible. But the Kievs did provide the Red Navy with its first operational air arm. As with all of the Soviet capital vessels, the Kievs were fitted with an impressive anti aircraft missile system that included the SAN-3 and SAN-4, plus a variety of anti ship and submarine platforms. The first operational Kiev was launched in the winter of 1972 and commissioned three years later. The Mink follow with its launching in 1975 and commissioning on the fall of 1978. The Novorossiysk, launched in 1978 and commissioned in 1982; was the last fully operational Kiev class carrier. One other Kiev class aircraft carrier was built, the Baku. The Baku was not built for carrier operations but to gather research data on the newest Soviet command and control systems as well as the new Yak-141 Freestyle supersonic VTOL aircraft. Eventually the Baku was to be re-named Admiral Gorshkov.Although the Kievs provided the Navy with its first operational air arm, their design and concept was that of transitional platform. Filling a need until a permanent solution was provided. In early 1981 that role was assume by the Kuznetsov class. The Kusnetsov was a compromise carrier platform. Its design incorporated many features of the canceled Orel project as well as some of the Kiev’s characteristics. Displacing 65,000 tons and power by a conventional engine, the new vessel gave the Soviet Union its first true conventional carrier platform. Conventional take-off and landing aircraft such as the Su-33, Su-25 and the MiG-29k; are able to operate out of the Kuznetsov’s deck which was sloped upward twelve degrees to facilitate short take-offs. Following the tradition of the Kiev class, the new carrier was fitted with the latest of Soviet anti aircraft and submarine systems. The lead ship of the class, the Admiral Kuznetsov was launched in 1985 and commissioned in 1991. Her sister ship, the Varyag, launched in 1992, was never completed due mainly to the political situation in the Russian Federation during the 1990s. There was another carrier design the Soviets were working on before their collapse in 1991. Project Ul’yanovsk was destined to be the Soviet Union’s first nuclear power aircraft carrier. Its design was basically the same as the Orel. A 75,000 ton displacement with steam catapults for take-off assistance. The first unit was laid down in the autumn of 1988, but work was stooped by the August coup of 1991 and never resumed. She was scrapped the following year.@