Russian battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy

History
Russia
Name:	Pyotr Velikiy
Namesake:	Peter the Great
Builder:	Baltic Shipyard , designer Severnoe PKB
Laid down:	1986
Launched:	1996
Commissioned:	18 April 1998
Status:	in active service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Kirov-class battlecruiser
Displacement:	24,300 tons (standard) 28,000 tons (full load)
Length:	252 m (827 ft) 230 m (750 ft) (waterline)
Beam:	28.5 m (94 ft)
Draft:	9.1 m (30 ft)
Installed power:	140,000 shp (100,000 kW)
Propulsion:	2-shaft, nuclear propulsion with steam turbine boost
Speed:	32 knots (59 km/h)
Range:	1,000 nautical miles (1,850 km) at 30 knots (56 km/h) (combined propulsion), Essentially unlimited with nuclear power at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	727 Aircrew: 18 Flag staff: 15
Sensors and processing systems:	Voskhod MR-800 (Top Pair) 3D search radar on foremast Fregat MR-710 (Top Steer) 3D search radar on main mast 2 × Palm Frond navigation radar on foremast 1 aft × Top Dome for SA-N-6 fire control 1 forward x Tomb Stone (Passive electronically scanned array) 4 × Bass Tilt for AK-630 CIWS System fire control 2 × Eye Bowl for SA-N-4 fire control Horse Jaw LF hull sonar Horse Tail VDS (Variable Depth Sonar)
Armament:	20 P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) anti-ship missiles 16 × 8 (128) 3K95 "Kinzhal" (SA-N-9) surface-to-air missiles 6 × 8 (48) S-300FM Fort-M surface-to-air missiles 6 × 8 (48) S-300 (missile) Fort surface-to-air missiles 44 OSA-MA (SA-N-4 Gecko) PD SAM 2 × RBU-1000 (Smerch-3) 305 mm ASW rocket launchers 2 × RBU-12000 (Udav-1) 254 mm ASW rocket launchers 1 twin AK-130 130 mm/L70 dual purpose gun 10 533 mm ASW/ASuW torpedo tubes, Type 53 torpedo or SS-N-15 ASW missile 6 × Kashtan (CADS-N-1) point defense gun/missile system
Armour:	76 mm plating around reactor compartment, light splinter protection
Aircraft carried:	3 × Kamov Ka-27 "Helix" or Ka-25 "Hormone"
Aviation facilities:	Below-deck hangar

Pyotr Velikiy (Russian: Пётр Великий) is the fourth Kirov-class battlecruiser of the Russian Navy. Initially named Yuri Andropov (Russian: Юрий Андропов) for Yuri Andropov, the former General Secretary of the Communist Party, the ship's name was changed after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Russian designation for the type is "heavy missile cruiser", but Western defense commentators re-invented the term "battlecruiser" to describe these as they are the largest surface combatant warships in the world. Pyotr Velikiy is the flagship of the Northern Fleet.

Construction of the ship was heavily affected by the economic problems before and after the fall of the Soviet Union and it was not commissioned until 1998, twelve years after work had started. By then it had been renamed Pyotr Velikiy, Russian for Peter the Great. Pyotr Velikiy has been known to carry two pennant numbers during its service; "183" and currently "099".

After completing its acceptance trials in November 1996, the vessel was transferred to the Northern Fleet at Severomorsk and became the flagship of the Northern Fleet.

In August 2000 Pyotr Velikiy was in the Barents Sea involved in the largest naval training exercise since the fall of the Soviet Union. The ship was to be the designated target of the Oscar-II class submarine K-141 Kursk, and was conducting evasive maneuvers when communication with Kursk was lost, the submarine apparently having suffered a catastrophic torpedo detonation with all hands lost. Pyotr Velikiy guarded the area where the submarine sank during the subsequent salvage operation in 2001.

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Wikipedia