Soviet aircraft carrier Ulyanovsk
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| Career (SU) |  |
|---|---|
| Laid down: | November 25, 1988 at Nikolayev 444 |
| Launched: | N/A |
| Struck: | November 1, 1991 |
| Fate: | Scrapped at 40% completion |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 60,000 tons empty 79,758 tons full load[1] |
| Length: | 324.6 meters (1,065 feet)[1] |
| Beam: | 75.5 meters (248.5 feet)[1] |
| Draught: | 11 meters (35.4 feet)[1] |
| Propulsion: | 4 × KN-3 nuclear reactors 4 × steam turbines, four shafts, 200,000 shp |
| Speed: | 30 knots (55 km/h) |
| Range: | Essentially unlimited |
| Endurance: | Limited only by supplies |
| Complement: | 2,300, 1,500 Air Group |
| Armament: | 12 SS-N-19 'Shipwreck' SSMs, SA-N-12 'Grizzly' SAMs, 8 CADS-N-1 CIWS, 8 AK-630 rotary anti-aircraft cannons |
| Aircraft carried: | 70 aircraft total 27 × Su-33 'Flanker-D' or 27 × MiG-29K 'Fulcrum-D' 10 × Su-39 'Frogfoot' 4 × Yak-44 radar picket aircraft 15–20 Ka-27 'Helix A' ASW helicopters |
Ulyanovsk (Cyrillic: Улья́новск) was the first of a class of Soviet supercarriers which, for the first time, would have offered true blue water aviation capability for the Soviet Navy. This was based upon the 1975 Project 1153 OREL (which never went beyond blueprints), and the initial commissioned name was to be Kremlin, but was later given the name Ulyanovsk,[2] after the Soviet town of Ulyanovsk, which was in turn named after Vladimir Lenin's original name.
She would have been 85,000 tons in displacement, or more than the older Forrestal-class carriers, but smaller than contemporary Nimitz class carriers of the U.S. Navy. Ulyanovsk would have been able to carry the full range of fixed-wing carrier aircraft, as opposed to the limited scope in which Admiral Kuznetsov makes aircraft available, by way of a ski jump. The configuration would have been very similar to U.S. Navy carriers, though with the typical Soviet twist of adding ASM and SAM launchers. Her hull was laid down in 1988, but the project was cancelled, (at 40% complete) along with a sister ship, in 1991 after the end of the Cold War. Scrapping began on 4 February 1992.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Ul'yanovsk Class - Project 1143.7
- ^ "The Self-Designing High-Reliability Organization: Aircraft Carrier Flight Operations at Sea." Rochlin, G. I.; La Porte, T. R.; Roberts, K. H. Footnote 39. Naval War College Review. Autumn, 1987, Vol. LI, No. 3.
[edit] External links and Sources
- Jane's Fighting Ships 2006-7
- Hazegray.org entry.
- Project 1143.7 Orel Ul'yanovsk class, GlobalSecurity.org.
- A Brief Look at Russian Aircraft Carrier Development, Robin J. Lee.
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