{"id":182,"date":"2014-10-17T19:20:20","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T16:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=182"},"modified":"2014-10-17T19:21:54","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T16:21:54","slug":"russia-to-relaunch-soviet-era-nuclear-battlecruiser-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/?p=182","title":{"rendered":"Russia to Relaunch Soviet-era Nuclear Battlecruiser in 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia’s Admiral Nakhimov nuclear-powered battlecruiser, currently undergoing extensive renovation and\u00a0rearmament, will hit the\u00a0water in\u00a02018 as Russia’s most powerful warship, Northern Design Bureau chief Vladimir Spiridopulo was quoted by\u00a0the state-run TASS news agency as saying on\u00a0Thursday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Russian<\/a>

Russian Navy Kirov-class Battle Cruiser (Photo by\u00a0wikimedia.org)<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0ship went into\u00a0service in\u00a01988, but has been mothballed at\u00a0the Sevmash Shipyards in\u00a0Severodvinsk since 1999. After years of\u00a0delays, work on\u00a0her restoration began in\u00a0January of\u00a0this year.<\/p>\n

“This will be a\u00a0complete overhaul of\u00a0the ship, [to make it] almost new. She has a\u00a0good hull. But everything else, except for\u00a0the hull and\u00a0the [nuclear] power plant will be new,” Spiridupulo said, adding that the\u00a0refurbishment will allow the\u00a0Nakhimov to\u00a0serve another 30 to\u00a040 years.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Admiral Nakhimov is one of\u00a0two surviving vessels of\u00a0the Soviet-era Kirov class\u00a0\u2014 nuclear-powered battlecruisers that are the\u00a0largest surface warships in\u00a0the world, other than aircraft carriers. The\u00a0only Kirov to\u00a0see constant service since construction has been the\u00a0Pyotr Veliky, at\u00a0one time the\u00a0flagship of\u00a0the Russian navy.<\/p>\n

Kirov-class battlecruisers are used to\u00a0destroy large enemy surface vessels, such as aircraft carriers. But advances in\u00a0naval technology and\u00a0tactics led most navies to\u00a0dump these types of\u00a0vessels after the\u00a0Second World War.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0other two Kirov’s have been sitting in\u00a0port awaiting dismantlement for\u00a0years. One of\u00a0those ships, the\u00a0Admiral Ushakov on\u00a0the coast of\u00a0the White Sea, is considered to\u00a0be a\u00a0profound radiological threat to\u00a0the local population and\u00a0environment.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Admiral Ushakov has two nuclear reactors, and\u00a0the spent nuclear fuel aboard the\u00a0ship has not been removed since she went into\u00a0service in\u00a01980. Spent nuclear fuel is the\u00a0most radioactive man-made nuclear waste. The\u00a0state of\u00a0the reactors is currently unknown.<\/p>\n

Regardless of\u00a0the sorry state of\u00a0the Kirov-class as a\u00a0whole, Russian naval officials are enthused about the\u00a0restored combat capability of\u00a0the Admiral Nakhimov. The\u00a0RIA Novosti news agency reported in\u00a02011 that repairs would cost around 50 billion rubles ($1.2 billion), or roughly the\u00a0price of\u00a0the two French-built Mistral-class warships ordered by\u00a0Russia.<\/p>\n

“It will be a\u00a0powerful vessel that exceeds the\u00a0combat capabilities of\u00a0the Pyotr Veliky,” Spiridupolo said.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source:<\/strong> \u00a0The Moscow Times<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia’s Admiral Nakhimov nuclear-powered battlecruiser, currently undergoing extensive renovation and\u00a0rearmament, will hit the\u00a0water in\u00a02018 as Russia’s most powerful warship, Northern Design Bureau chief Vladimir Spiridopulo was quoted by\u00a0the state-run TASS news agency as saying...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,22],"tags":[71,70,68,67,72,69,66],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xairforces.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}