WORST NIGHTMARE for US Navy !!! Russian Navy Kirov Class warship

• published: 01 Jul 2015
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The pride of the Russian navy is the Kirov Class battle cruiser warship. Some may say its the worst nightmare of the US Navy. The Kirov-class battlecruiser is a class of nuclear-powered warship of the Russian Navy, the largest and heaviest surface combatant warships (i.e. not an aircraft carrier or amphibious assault ship) currently in active operation in the world. Among modern warships, they are second in size only to large aircraft carriers, and of similar size to a World War I-era battleship. The official designation of the ship-type is "heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser" (Russian: тяжёлый атомный ракетный крейсер), but because of their size and general appearance, the ships are often referred to as battlecruisers by western defense commentators.[3] Originally built for the Soviet Navy, the class is named for the first of a series of 4 ships to be constructed, Kirov, which was renamed Admiral Ushakov in 1992. Original plans called for the construction of 5 ships, however the last was cancelled. In Russia this class of ship is usually referred to by the designation Project 1144 Orlan (sea eagle). Only the Pyotr Velikiy is currently operational. The Admiral Nakhimov is projected to re-enter the Russian Navy in 2018. Russia planned to reactivate the remaining two vessels by 2020,[2][4] but recent reporting suggests that the reactors in Ushakov and Lazarev are in a poor condition, and these ships cannot be safely reactivated.[5][6][7] The appearance of the Kirov class played a key role in the recommissioning of the Iowa-class battleships by the United States Navy in the 1980s.[8][9][10] The Kirov hull design also was used for the nuclear-powered SSV-33 command ship Ural. Builders: Baltic Shipyard, Leningrad Operators: Soviet Navy Russian Navy Built: 1974–1998 In service: From 1980 Planned: 5 Completed: 4 Cancelled: 1 Active: 1 (1 undergoing modernization) Laid up: 1 Retired: 1 General characteristics Type: Heavy guided missile cruiser/battlecruiser with nuclear marine propulsion Displacement: 24,300 tons standard, 28,000 (full load) Length: 252 m (827 ft) Beam: 28.5 m (94 ft) Draft: 9.1 m (30 ft) Propulsion: 2-shaft CONAS, 2× KN-3 nuclear marine propulsion with 2× GT3A-688 steam turbines 140,000 shp (100,000 kW)[1] Speed: 32 knots (59 km/h) Range: 1,000 nautical miles (2,000 km) at 30 knots (56 km/h) (combined propulsion), unlimited at 20 knots (37 km/h) on nuclear power Complement: 710 Sensors and processing systems: Radars: (NATO reporting name): Voskhod MR-800 (Top Pair) 3D search radar, foremast Fregat MR-710 (Top Plate) 3D search radar, main mast 2 × Palm Frond navigation radar, foremast Sonar: Horse Jaw LF hull sonar Horse Tail VDS (Variable Depth Sonar) Electronic warfare and decoys: 2 x PK-2 Decoy dispensers (400 rockets) Armament: Missiles: • 20 × P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) AShM • 14 × SS-N-14 Silex ASW cruise missiles (Ushakov only) • 96 S-300F Fort SA-N-6 Grumble surface-to-air missiles (Ushakov, Lazarev, Nakhimov)[citation needed] • 48 S-300F Fort and 48 S-300FM Fort-M (SA-N-20 Gargoyle) long-range SAM (Pyotr Velikhy)[2] • 128 9K95 Tor (SA-N-9 Gauntlet) point defense SAM[2] • 40 OSA-MA (SA-N-4 Gecko) PD SAM Guns: • 1 × twin AK-130 130 mm/L70 dual purpose gun (2 × AK-100 100 mm/L60 DP guns in Ushakov) • 8 ×AK-630 six-barreled Gatling 30 mm/L60 PD guns (Ushakov, Lazarev) • 6 × CADS-N-1 Kashtan gun/missile system (Nakhimov, Pyotr Velikiy[2]) Torpedoes and others: • 1 × 10 RBU-1000 305 mm ASW rocket launchers • 2 × 6 RBU-12000 (Udav-1) 254 mm ASW rocket launchers • 10 × 533 mm ASW/ASuW torpedo tubes, Type 53 torpedo or RPK-2 Viyuga (SS-N-15) ASW missile Armour: 76 mm plating around reactor compartment, light splinter protection Aircraft carried: 3 helicopters Aviation facilities: Below-deck hangar Design The Kirov class's main weapons are 20 P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) missiles mounted in deck, designed to engage large surface targets. Air defense is provided by twelve octuple S-300F launchers with 96 missiles and a pair of Osa-MA batteries with 20 missiles each. Pyotr Velikiy carries some S-300FM missiles and is the only ship in the Russian Navy capable of ballistic missile defence.[2] The ships had some differences in sensor and weapons suites: Kirov came with SS-N-14 ASW missiles, while on subsequent ships these were replaced with 9K331 Tor SAM systems. The Tor installation is in fact mounted further forward of the old SS-N-14 mounting, in the structure directly behind the blast shield for the bow mounted RBU ASW rocket launcher. Kirov and Frunze had eight 30 mm (1.2 in) AK-630 close-in weapon systems, which were supplanted with[clarification needed] the Kashtan air-defence system on later ships. Other weapons are the automatic 130 mm (5.1 in) AK-130 gun system (except in Kirov which had two single 100 mm (3.9 in) guns instead), 10 21-inch (533-mm)