This Russian Aircraft Carrier Was Built to Kill Navy Submarines and Carriers

[TomSea]

This Russian Aircraft Carrier Was Built to Kill Navy Submarines and Carriers
by Kyle Mizokami

The breakup of the Soviet Union left the ships in the hands of the Russian Federation, which could not afford to maintain them. Worse, the Nikolayev South shipyards and spare parts were now in a separate country, Ukraine. All of the Kiev class were retired and a fifth unnamed ship was never built. Kiev was sold to China where it became a hotel, while Minsk will reportedly be part of a theme park. Novorossiysk was broken up at Pohang, South Korea in the 1990s.

Of all four mighty ships only one, Baku, remains. The most advanced ship in the best condition of all four, Baku was retained, renamed Admiral Gorshkov , and then sold to the Indian government to be converted into a full aircraft carrier. Converted by Russia’s Sevmash shipyards in the 2000s and 2010s , today it is known as the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya and is the flagship of the Indian fleet.

The Kiev-class carriers were an ambitious attempt to give Russia a powerful ship capable of taking on American aircraft carriers while at the same time hunting down submarines that posed a threat to the Soviet homeland. Because responsibilities were split between two vastly different, their ability to do either was severely curtailed. Ships that are half one type of ship and half another, like Japan’s World War II Ise -class aircraft carrier/battleships , are usually a failure at being both. The Kiev class was no exception.

Read more at: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/russian-aircraft-carrier-was-built-kill-navy-submarines-and-carriers-27442?page=0%2C1