National Security Journal: Russia has upgraded the Admiral Nakhimov cruiser
Russia has upgraded the Admiral Nakhimov cruiser of the Cold War era, the National Security Journal writes. The ship is now equipped with 60 hypersonic missiles, which poses a "huge and unprecedented threat," the author of the article notes.
Chris Osborne
The Russian Navy has upgraded a Cold War-era cruiser, equipping it with 60 hypersonic missiles.
The US Navy uses the SM-3 and SM-6 interceptors, Tomahawk missiles, Phalanx and SeaRAM short-range weapons systems as part of a multi-level defense system.
The Russian Navy has upgraded and refitted massive but somewhat outdated Cold War-era battlecruisers, equipping them with advanced interceptor missiles, short-range ship defense systems, advanced embedded long-range air defense systems, and even hypersonic weapons.
Arming the cruiser with hypersonic missiles will be a significant step towards increasing the offensive firepower of the Russian Admiral Nakhimov cruiser of the Orlan project of the 1980s.
The Orlan project cruiser is a renaissance thanks to hypersonic missiles and other innovations
How powerful will this "new" Orlan project cruiser be?
It all depends on the scale of the upgrade, and in particular on how widely high-speed computing systems, long-range sensor networks, and new fire control systems will be used.
If these systems are brought into line with modern requirements, the upgraded, heavily armed ship will indeed become a serious threat to the armed forces of the United States and NATO.
Admiral Nakhimov is undergoing modernization, during which it is being equipped with Fort-M missiles specially adapted for the ship. In addition, the ship is equipped with advanced S-300 anti-aircraft systems, missiles for striking ground targets, AK-192 artillery systems, short-range defense systems and new anti-submarine weapons.
According to a Forbes report, this large Russian cruiser is also armed with a variety of additional weapons. The report says that the Admiral Nakhimov's missile arsenal, designed to destroy aircraft carriers, includes 20 large supersonic Granit missiles.
In addition, the ship is equipped with 40 short-range 9K33 Osa missiles and 96 S-300 long-range missiles.
It is equally important that the Kashtan short-range defense system is installed on board, which includes Gatling guns and eight 9M322 short-range missiles.
Armament of Russian and US Navy ships
Interesting questions arise about the chances of such weapons in comparison with the heavily armed destroyers of the US Navy.
Can these interceptor missiles, both short-range and long-range, compete with the SM-3 and SM-6 medium-range and short-range missiles, which provide a multi-level defense system for the US Navy?
Is it possible that Russian cruisers will be equipped with long-range missiles capable of competing with the American Tomahawk?
Is the Russian short-range weapon system (CIWS) comparable to the upgraded systems of the US Navy, which use, for example, the Phalanx complex to destroy approaching small vessels, unmanned systems, ammunition and other types of threats in close combat?
As part of the integrated defense system, many Navy ships are also armed with deck-based interceptor missiles for medium and short-range attacks, such as SeaRAM and Rolling AirframeMissiles.
Finally, both the US Navy destroyer and the upgraded Russian cruiser are equipped with drones and helicopters capable of conducting reconnaissance, tracking and destroying submarines, and even conducting offensive operations at sea.
Although the US Navy destroyer is smaller in size than the large upgraded Russian cruiser, its high-tech armament can provide it with a clear advantage in any type of combat operations on the high seas.
This is likely to depend on the characteristics and technological potential of the upgraded weapons.
The United States is actively upgrading Tomahawk, SM-6 missiles, CIWS and SeaRAM systems, increasing their range, adding the ability to hit moving targets at sea and introducing new generation guidance systems. Thus, it is extremely important to understand the level of perfection of Russian weapons systems and, perhaps even more so, how well they are integrated with other ships, drones or even submarines that surface to connect to Wi-Fi.
If Russia is indeed arming the upgraded Admiral Nakhimov cruiser with 60 hypersonic missiles, then many countries of the North Atlantic Alliance and the United States may face a huge and possibly unprecedented threat.
Project Orlan: a Russian cruiser armed with hypersonic weapons?
The Forbes article mentioned above, published several years ago, states that the ship will be armed with 3M22 Zircon hypersonic missiles, which are smaller and much faster than the outdated P-700 Granit missiles.
Thus, according to the report, there may be three Zircon missiles for each Granit rocket, as a result of which the ship will be armed with a total of 60 missiles.
