Soviet aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov

History
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Name:	Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov (Russian: Адмирал Флота Советского Союза Кузнецов)
Namesake:	Nikolay Kuznetsov
Ordered:	3 March 1981
Builder:	Nikolayev South Designer: Nevskoye Planning and Design Bureau
Laid down:	1 April 1982
Launched:	6 December 1985
Commissioned:	25 December 1990 (Fully operational in 1995)
Refit:	May – August 2015
Status:	in active service
General characteristics
Class and type:	Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier
Displacement:	43,000 tons (Standard-load) 55,200 tons (Full-load) 61,390 tons (Max-load)
Length:	305 m (1,001 ft) o/a 270 m (890 ft) w/l
Beam:	72 m (236 ft)o/a 35 m (115 ft) w/l
Draft:	10 m (33 ft)
Propulsion:	Steam turbines, 8 turbo-pressurised boilers, 4 shafts, 200,000 hp (150 MW) 4 × 50,000 hp (37 MW) turbines 9 × 2,011 hp (1,500 kW) turbogenerators 6 × 2,011 hp (1,500 kW) diesel generators 4 × fixed pitch propellers
Speed:	29 knots (33 mph; 54 km/h)
Range:	8,500 nmi (15,700 km) at 18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h)
Endurance:	45 days
Complement:	1,690 (total); 1,690 ship's crew 626 air group 40 flag staff 3,857 rooms
Armament:	6 × AK-630 AA guns (6×30 mm, 6,000 round/min/mount, 24,000 rounds) 8 × CADS-N-1 Kashtan CIWS (each 2 × 30 mm Gatling AA plus 32 3K87 Kortik SAM) 12 × P-700 Granit SSM 24 × 8-cell 3K95 Kinzhal SAM VLS (192 missiles; 1 missile per 3 seconds) RBU-12000 UDAV-1 ASW rocket launchers (60 rockets)
Aircraft carried:	Approx. 41 aircraft Fixed Wing; 12 × Su-33 fighters (current) 20 × MiG-29K/KUB fighters (future) 4 × Sukhoi Su-25UTG/UBP trainers Rotary Wing; 4 × Kamov Ka-27LD32 helicopters 18 × Kamov Ka-27PL helicopters 2 × Kamov Ka-27PS helicopters

25 December 1990

Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov (Russian: Адмира́л фло́та Сове́тского Сою́за Кузнецо́в "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov") is an aircraft cruiser (heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser, or TAVKR, in Russian classification) serving as the flagship of the Russian Navy. She was built by the Black Sea Shipyard, the sole manufacturer of Soviet aircraft carriers, in Mykolaiv within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The initial name of the ship was Riga; she was launched as Leonid Brezhnev, embarked on sea trials as Tbilisi, and finally named Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov. The ship was named after Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov.

She was originally commissioned in the Soviet Navy, and was intended to be the lead ship of her class. However, her sister ship Varyag had not yet been commissioned when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The second hull was eventually sold by Ukraine to the People's Republic of China, completed in Dalian and commissioned as Liaoning.

The design of Admiral Kuznetsov-class implies a mission different from that of the United States Navy's carriers. The term used by her builders to describe the Russian ships is tyazholyy avianesushchiy kreyser (TAVKR) – "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser" – intended to support and defend strategic missile-carrying submarines, surface ships, and naval missile-carrying aircraft of the Russian Navy.

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