Department of Defense artwork of a Soviet nuclear-powered aircraft carrier similar to Ulyanovsk, under construction. |
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| Career (Soviet Union) | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Ulyanovsk (Russian: Улья́новск) |
| 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: | Overall: 248.5 ft (75.5 m)[1] Waterline: 130.6 ft (39.8 m)[1] |
| Draught: | 11 meters (35.4 feet)[1] |
| Propulsion: | 4 × KN-3 nuclear reactors 4 × steam turbines, four shafts, 280,000 shp |
| Speed: | 30 knots (55 km/h) |
| Range: | Unlimited distance; 20-25 years |
| Endurance: | Limited only by supplies |
| Complement: | 2,300, 1,500 Air Group |
| Armament: | 12 P-700 Granit SSMs, Buk SAMs, 8 CADS-N-1 CIWS, 8 AK-630 rotary anti-aircraft cannons |
| Aircraft carried: | 70 aircraft total 27 × Sukhoi Su-33 or 27 × Mikoyan MiG-29 10 × Sukhoi Su-25 4 × Yak-44 radar picket aircraft 15–20 Kamov Ka-27 ASW helicopters |
Ulyanovsk (Cyrillic: Улья́новск) was the first of a class of Soviet nuclear-powered 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.
It would have been 85,000 tons in displacement (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 launched aircraft, by way of a ski jump. The configuration would have been very similar to U.S. Navy carriers though with the typical Soviet practice of adding anti-ship missile (ASM) and surface-to-air missile (SAM) launchers. Its hull was laid down in 1988, but the project was cancelled at 40% complete along with a sister ship in 1991. Scrapping began on 4 February 1992.
The People's Republic of China is expected to build two nuclear aircraft carriers based on the Project 1143.7 Ulyanovsk class design for some of the PLAN future Chinese aircraft carriers.[3]
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