Stalingrad-class battlecruiser
Side and plan views of the Stalingrad class
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Operators: |
 Soviet Navy
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| Preceded by: | Kronshtadt class |
| Built: | 1951–1953 |
| Planned: | at least 4 |
| Cancelled: | 4 |
| General characteristics Project 82 design | |
| Type: | Battlecruiser |
| Displacement: |
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| Length: | 273.6 m (897 ft 8 in) |
| Beam: | 32 m (105 ft 0 in) |
| Draught: | 9.2 m (30 ft 2 in) |
| Installed power: | 280,000 shp (208,796 kW) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 35.5 knots (65.7 km/h; 40.9 mph) |
| Endurance: | 5,000 nmi (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) |
| Complement: | 1,712 |
| Sensors and processing systems: |
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| Electronic warfare & decoys: |
Korall and Machta jammers |
| Armament: |
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| Armor: |
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The Stalingrad-class battlecruiser, also known as Project 82 (Russian: Тяжёлые крейсера проекта 82), was a Soviet battlecruiser design from 1941. It was a smaller and less-expensive counterpart to the Kronshtadt-class battlecruisers of 1939. The original role was for a light, fast ship intended to break up attacks by British fast-cruiser forces that might attempt bombardment of Russia's northern ports. The design would have been able to outgun any ship with similar speed, or outrun anything more heavily armed. Design work had just started when the German invasion of the Soviet Union opened and the design was put on hold.
The design was reimagined in 1944, intended to operate along with the Sverdlov-class cruisers and proposed aircraft carriers to make up powerful task forces able to challenge the American fleet. In this role it would need to be a more powerful ship than the original design, taking over for the now-cancelled Kronstadts. They were intended to fend off enemy attacks and protect the carriers when bad weather prevented flying. A series of at least four were planned, and Stalingrad finally began construction in 1951. Supported primarily by Joseph Stalin and opposed by a considerable part of the naval staff, the project came to an abrupt end with his death in 1953. By this time a second example was under construction and abandoned on the slipway, while a third was never started. The partially completed Stalingrad ended as a target ship for testing anti-ship missiles, before being broken up around 1962.
The roots of the Project 82-class began back in May 1941 when the Main Naval Staff approved tactical requirements (Russian: Operativno Takticheskoye Zadanie, OTZ) for a medium-sized cruiser between the light cruisers of the Kirov and Chapayev classes, and the Kronshtadts. It was intended to fulfill the following roles:
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