Thursday, July 29, 2024

Kirovs Back in Service?

This seems unlikely, but nevertheless it appears that the Russian Navy is thinking about returning the three mothballed Kirovs to service by 2020:
Russia will upgrade and put on active duty three mothballed Soviet-era nuclear-powered missile cruisers by 2020, a high-ranking Navy official told RIA Novosti on Saturday.
Russia built four Kirov class nuclear-powered cruisers in 1974-1998. One of them, the Pyotr Veliky, is in active service as the flagship of the Northern Fleet.
"Cruisers Admiral Nakhimov, Admiral Lazarev and Admiral Ushakov will be modernized and returned to the Russian Navy's combat force in 10 years," the official said, adding that their equipment and weapons will be fully modernized.

I have my doubts. The newest of the three will be 32 years old in 2020, and while they didn't see extensive service during their previous careers, I have to wonder about the condition they've been kept in. The first two were scheduled for disposal at points during their repose, and Kirov (now Ushakov) is rumored to have been cannibalized for spare parts. Seems like a waste of resources to bring them back, but then again it could further indicate the decrepit state of Russian shipbuilding...

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