A Monster Soon to Awake from Slumber; the Battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov

The Russian Battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov is the 3rd of 4 Kirov Class Battlecruisers built in the waning days of the Soviet Union. She has been in refit for the last 11 years, and should be underway next year, 30-years after her commissioning.

The refit has been so long as they kept changing their mind what they wanted he to be, and from the looks of it, they’ve done almost a complete rebuild.

Here’s the executive summary:

improvements are expected to include new vertical launch missile tubes that can accommodate Onix anti-ship missiles and Kalibr land-attack cruise missiles and a separate navalized version of the S-400 surface-to-air missile.

That isn’t what I’d like you to focus on. If your Russian isn’t up to speed, that’s OK, listen anyway.

Watch the below video, but keep your eyes in the background. Details, details, details…



Once she re-joins the fleet, one should expect that she will come with these toys as well;

In April, 2017, Russia’s new hypersonic anti-ship Zircon missile has reached eight times the speed of sound (about 6100 mph) during the test, a source with Russia’s defense sector told TASS.

The source noted that Zircon missiles can be launched from universal launching platforms 3C14 which are also used for the Onyx and Caliber missiles.

It is expected that the new missiles will be installed at the heave (sic) nuclear-powered cruisers Peter the Great and Admiral Nakhimov.

The expected range with a new type of fuel is about 1000 km (600 miles) at Mach 5-6. The export version will be limited to 400 kilometers range. Launching platform is the 3S14 Agat, also used to launch the SS-N-26 Strobile and SS-N-27 «Sizzler» missiles.