Soviet aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov
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| History | |
|---|---|
  Russia
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| Name: | Admiral Gorshkov |
| Namesake: | Sergey Gorshkov |
| Builder: | Chernomorskiy Yard, Nikolayev |
| Laid down: | 17 February 1978 |
| Launched: | 1 April 1982 |
| Commissioned: | 11 December 1987 |
| Decommissioned: | 1996 |
| Fate: | Sold to India on 20 January 2004 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Kiev-class aircraft carrier |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 273 m (896 ft) |
| Beam: | |
| Draught: | 9.42 m (30.9 ft) |
| Propulsion: | 4 shaft geared steam turbines, 200,000 shp |
| Speed: | 32 kn (59 km/h; 37 mph) |
| Endurance: | 13,500 nmi (25,000 km; 15,500 mi) at 18 kn (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Armament: | 6 × twin SS-N-12 Sandbox SSM launchers (12 missiles), 24 × 8-cell SA-N-9 vertical SAM launchers (192 missiles), 2 × 100 mm guns, 8 × AK-630 30 mm CIWS, 10 × 533 mm torpedo tubes, 2 × RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers |
| Aircraft carried: | |
Admiral Gorshkov was a modified Kiev-class aircraft carrier of the Russian Navy, originally named Baku. Sometimes Admiral Gorshkov is considered a separate class due to its improvements including a phased array radar, extensive electronic warfare installations, and an enlarged command and control suite. She was launched in 1982, and was in service from 1987 to 1991 in the Soviet Navy as Baku, and from 1991 to 1996 in the Russian Navy as Admiral Gorshkov. In 2004, she was sold to India and converted into a STOBAR carrier now named INS Vikramaditya.
The ship was laid down in 1978 at Nikolayev South (Shipyard No.444) in Ukraine, launched in 1982, and commissioned in December 1987. The delay in commissioning was largely caused by software bugs in the new command and control system. The ship was renamed Admiral Gorshkov after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, as the city of Baku was now in independent Azerbaijan. Sergey Gorshkov was responsible for the expansion of the Soviet Navy during the Cold War.
In 1994, following a boiler room explosion, the ship was docked for a year of repairs. Although she returned to service in 1995, she was finally withdrawn in 1996 and offered for sale.
On 20 January 2004, Russia agreed to sell Admiral Gorshkov to India after an extensive upgrade at Sevmash Enterprise. In December 2009, it was reported that India had agreed to pay a price of US$ 2.3 billion. The carrier, now christened INS Vikramaditya was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 16 November 2013.
The fourth of the Project 1143 aircraft carrying cruisers, Baku had many differences from the rest of the class, trialing technologies to be used on the Admiral Kuznetsov. The most obvious is the massive passive electronically scanned array above the bridge. This was the phased array antenna for the Mars-Passat ("Sky Watch") 3D air search radar, comparable to the US SCANFAR radar. Like SCANFAR, Sky Watch proved troublesome and was probably never operational.
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