Project 1144 nuclear missile cruisers are going through hard times today. Created for the needs of a completely different fleet, preparing for a completely different war, today they give the impression of a restless "suitcase without a handle" - it is difficult to carry, it is a pity to throw it away. Nevertheless, the Russian Ministry of Defense intends to breathe new life into them.
During the 2000s, the fate of the Soviet cruisers of Project 1144 seemed to be decided. The three oldest ships in the series, withdrawn from the Russian Navy for modernization in the late 90s, were tacitly "written off" by public opinion. The Internet was full of photographs of unkempt, rusty "iron" quietly fading away in the naval sludge. Here and there voices of "informed" people were heard, reporting that from next year the ships were already definitely assigned to be cut into metal and they had no prospects.
This year, it seems, the situation has changed radically. The decision to return these ships after radical modernization to the Navy has been officially announced. As far as can be judged from the scanty comments of the leadership of its main command, the upcoming improvements will seriously change the very concept of cruisers, significantly affecting their future role in the new Russian fleet.
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Since the late 1960s, the doctrine of building the Soviet Navy has been inextricably linked with the name of its commander-in-chief, Admiral Sergei Gorshkov. The author of the program book "The Sea Power of the State", which was carefully studied in the naval academies of all the major powers of the world, assessing the bleak prospects of the naval arms race with the entire "aggressive NATO bloc" and China in addition, made and struck at the very top the decision on the "asymmetric response "- building a fleet around the anti-aircraft component.
Words like “asymmetric response” or “unique, unparalleled in the world” are generally heard very often when talking about the late period in the development of the defense industry of the USSR. It should be understood that the "asymmetry" of such responses, as a rule, did not arise from a good economic and geopolitical situation, but the "uniqueness" was rooted in the industrial and technological specifics and the weakness of the infrastructure, which did not allow the deployment of large-scale production and operation of products designed on the basis of "standard »Solutions. Nevertheless, “uniqueness” was often much more expensive. Suffice it to recall, for example, six strategic missile carriers of Project 941 - stunning submarine giants who fell victim to the inability of the Soviet defense industry to create compact ballistic complexes on solid fuel and received the disrespectful nickname "water carriers" seawater ballast tanks).
Project 1144 Orlan heavy nuclear missile cruisers (TARKr) were also a "unique asymmetric" solution. A large ship carrying heavy anti-ship missiles P-700 "Granit" was to become one of the pivot elements of the anti-aircraft forces of the USSR Navy, along with Project 949 / 949A submarines, which used the same missiles, and naval missile-carrying aviation (Tu-22M bombers with the X -22 "The Tempest"). In the 70s, the Soviet Union believed that it could afford the creation of an expensive highly specialized tool, "sharpened" for the fight against the worst naval enemies of the continental empire - the aircraft carrier strike groups of the US Navy.
Battlecruiser of the atomic era
The final version of the project was a heavy ship with a displacement of 25 thousand tons with two nuclear reactors and a developed missile system. 20 anti-ship missiles P-700 "Granit", 24 launchers for long-range anti-aircraft missiles S-300F "Fort", missile and artillery air defense systems of the near and middle zone (now it is the SAM "Dagger" and the SAM "Kortik"). The PLO complex was also impressive: in addition to the Waterfall missiles and RBU-1000 Smerch-3 rocket launchers, the Udav-1M anti-torpedo missile system was installed on the ship.
In fact, the ship carried an echeloned self-defense system for a single offensive weapon - heavy anti-ship missiles. Nevertheless, naval specialists unanimously said: successful tactical use of cruisers is possible only as part of naval strike groups "with ensuring proper combat stability", which directly indicated the insufficient survivability of these ships in the conditions of modern naval warfare.
As a result, Project 1144 began to somewhat resemble the battle cruisers of the early twentieth century: heavily armed, but relatively vulnerable. And this is despite the specially provided for the placement of local elements of the surface structural protection. Protection of key volumes of the ship appeared in the domestic fleet for the first time after the period of abandonment of all kinds of armor, which began in the late 50s after bravura reports about the "absolute" strength of anti-ship missiles, made on the basis of firing KSShch missiles of armored compartments of the unfinished heavy cruiser of Project 82 "Stalingrad" …
Admiral Gorshkov demanded that the cruisers also have a backup propulsion system powered by fossil fuel. This controversial step, making the ship heavier and more expensive, as well as complicating its maintenance and supply, was nevertheless necessary due to the weakness of the infrastructure for basing and ship repair, as well as the relatively small experience of operating surface ships with a nuclear power plant, which is reduced to the use of a nuclear icebreaker fleet. on the Northern Sea Route.
In total, they managed to build four nuclear cruisers. The first, "Kirov" in an atmosphere of incredible haste, was transferred to the fleet on December 30, 1980 - "under the tree", as they said at the time. It was followed by "Frunze" and "Kalinin". The last ship of the series - "Peter the Great" ("Yuri Andropov" when laying down) entered service in 1998. It was extremely expensive to maintain these ships in the 90s. And if the new "Peter the Great" remained in the combat composition, turning for some moment into something like a representative symbol of the greatly impoverished oceanic fleet of Russia, then three of its sisterships were withdrawn to the reserve.
In the 2000s, the cruisers were greeted in a disgusting state. "Kirov", renamed first into "Admiral Ushakov", and then (the vicissitudes of reforms!) Back to "Kirov", since 1999 has been in Severodvinsk "on modernization" (it would be more correct to say in short - just stood). The same fate befell Kalinin (Admiral Nakhimov). "Frunze" ("Admiral Lazarev") stuck out all the way in the Abrek Bay, in the slop of the Pacific Fleet. The ships have stayed there until now.
In July 2010, it was announced that all TARKr project 1144 will undergo a deep modernization and will be returned to the fleet. In particular, "Admiral Nakhimov" will be the first to be upgraded - already in 2011. The situation with the Kirov is more complicated: according to a number of data, it has a serious breakdown of the main gearbox of the turbo-gear unit, which happened during the "fire" run to the site of the accident of the K-278 Komsomolets submarine in 1989 and was further aggravated by problems with the main power plant, which is why the ship has never gone to sea since 1991. As noted, restoration is possible only with a serious dismantling of the hull structures, which will delay and increase the cost of putting the ship into operation.
Where should the Eagles fly?
Among the measures for the modernization of the "Admiral Nakhimov" is the quite understandable replacement of electronic weapons and on-board computing systems with samples using modern element base. In addition, it is planned to remove from the forecastle both groups of mines for "Granites" and "Forts", after which a single package of mines of the universal ship firing complex (UKSK) will be placed there.
The last point requires special attention. In fact, this is a complete change in the destination of the ship. A variety of missiles can be used in the UKSK. The "heavy" anti-ship component is formed by the P-800 "Onyx" missiles, on the basis of the export version of which India is creating its own "Brahmos" missile. The second strike system will be the Kalibr multifunctional complex with a whole family of missiles: supersonic anti-ship 3M54, subsonic 3M14 for striking ground targets, as well as anti-submarine missiles 91R and 91RT, which use homing torpedoes as warheads.
This versatile strike kit, the composition of which can be varied depending on the mission assigned to the ship, will prove to be an interesting step forward compared to the hasty and not the most effective adaptation of the highly specialized "boat" complex "Granit" for use from a surface ship, implemented in the construction of these cruisers.
The anti-aircraft component of missile weapons is represented by the 9M96 version of the missiles, which have been successfully used for several years in the S-300PM and S-300PMU-2 Favorit systems, as well as in the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system. In addition, the UKSK can use the promising 9M100 anti-aircraft missile, created on the basis of the RVV-AE air-to-air missile. This system will close the issue of air defense in the near zone (up to 12 km), unifying the use as part of other anti-aircraft weapons.
Thus, a clearly readable line is outlined for the transformation of "aircraft carrier killers" into wide-profile heavy arsenal ships capable of launching an extremely diverse spectrum of modern weapons, depending on the task at hand. By the way, the promising frigates of the ocean zone of the project 22350, as well as the corvettes of the project 20380, whose construction is now beginning at domestic shipyards, are armed with the same universal firing complex.
To a certain extent, Project 1144 is "turned inside out": the replacement of combat systems with universal ones transfers the cruisers from an orientation towards a good performance of a single mission to multipurpose use as part of heterogeneous ship strike groups. The Russian fleet is starting a slow restructuring around a new flexible doctrine of combat use, and it is very symbolic that it also found a place for updated veteran ships, born in due time for completely different tasks.
