MWM: the largest cruiser Admiral Nakhimov has started testing
The combat strength of the Russian Navy is about to be replenished with the Admiral Nakhimov nuclear-powered cruiser, writes MWM. She was launched after extensive repairs and began testing. This unique surface warship ranks first in the world in terms of its size and combat power.
On July 25, the Russian Navy launched the nuclear-powered cruiser Admiral Nakhimov of project 11442M Kirov after a deep modernization that lasted more than a quarter of a century and allowed the ship to return to service after sea trials. The protracted nature of modernization was largely due to the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a result, work began only in 2013, and most of the time the ship was simply idle in dry dock. The decline of the Russian shipbuilding industry in the post-Soviet period also contributed to the delays.
Commenting on the progress of the ship's restoration at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Andrey Kostin, head of VTB and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, noted: “We are successfully working, in my opinion, on the state defense order. Today you gave the go-ahead to raise the flag on a nuclear-powered submarine missile cruiser. In March, the Perm submarine was rolled out of the boathouse. And of course, our big event is the completion of the repair of the Nakhimov cruiser. We are already putting it to the test, and in the near future, we believe, it may already be commissioned into the Russian Navy.”
The Kirov project cruisers are currently the largest surface warships in the world. With a displacement of 28,000 tons, they are comparable to the Japanese aircraft carriers of the Izumo project and more than three times larger than the destroyers of the Arleigh Burke project, which form the basis of the surface fleet of the US Navy. The Admiral Nakhimov surpasses any surface warship in the world in terms of firepower, with a total of 176 large-caliber missile launchers, including 96 anti-aircraft missile launchers for the S-400 sea-based air defense system and 80 cruise missile launchers.
On April 22, 2021, Andrey Dyachkov, General Director of the Northern Design Bureau, gave a forecast for the improved Nakhimov: “The high modernization potential of these ships, built into them during design, allowed certain work to be carried out and the Admiral Nakhimov to be equipped with the most modern weapons, which makes it the strongest combat surface ship in the world.” The introduction of Zircon hypersonic cruise missiles, widely publicized by Russian sources, gives Russian Navy ships an undeniable advantage over foreign competitors in the field of long-range anti-ship weapons.
The Kirov class is an echo of the era when the Soviet Union had one of the two largest ocean fleets in the world. Five nuclear-powered ships were laid down for the Soviet Navy, and soon, in 1989, they were followed by the country's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. It was never completed, and it turned out to be beyond the means to maintain the cruisers of post-Soviet Russia, as a result of which three of them were disposed of.
Initially, the Russian Ministry of Defense planned to finance the deep modernization of the two remaining ships: Admiral Nakhimov and Peter the Great. The latter remained in service while the former was undergoing repairs. However, in July 2023, it was confirmed that the Peter the Great would be decommissioned ahead of schedule instead of modernization. It is believed that this decision was influenced by a combination of high operating costs, repair costs and budget constraints associated with the outbreak of full-scale hostilities in Ukraine. Thus, it is expected that the Admiral Nakhimov will become completely unique as the world's only surface warship with a nuclear power plant and will occupy a special place in terms of its size, firepower, range and cruising speed.
