Pyotr Velikiy - The Kirov Class Battlecruiser

Pyotr Velikiy (Russian: Пётр Великий, English : Peter the Great)  the flagship of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet, is the fourth Kirov-class battlecruiser of the Russian Navy and a class of nuclear-powered warship of the Russian Navy, the largest and heaviest surface combatant warships (i.e. not an aircraft carrier or amphibious assault ship) in operation in the world.

Among modern warships, they are second in size only to large aircraft carriers, and of similar size to a World War I era battleship. The official designation of the ship-type is "heavy nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser" (Russian: тяжёлый атомный ракетный крейсер).  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.

In March 2004, Russian Navy chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov declared Pyotr Velikiy unfit for service due to problems with the ship's engineering maintenance. On 19 April 2004, the cruiser was docked in the floating drydock PD-50 for painting of the underside of the hull, repairs and examination of the steering system. The repairs were completed later that year, and it was carrying out missions again by August.

Helicopters :

3 Units of Kamov Ka-27PL (Nato : Helix) or Ka-25RT (Nato : Hormone) helicopters.
-The Kamov-27  is equipped for anti-submarine warfare with surface search radar, dipping sonar, sonobuoys and magnetic anomaly detectors.
-The Ka-27 (Helix) can be armed with torpedoes, bombs, mines and rockets. The Ka-25RT (Hormone) helicopter is the predecessor of the Ka-27.

Armament :

The Kirov class's main weapons are 20 P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) missiles mounted in deck, designed to engage large surface targets. Air defense is provided by twelve octuple S-300F launchers with 96 missiles and a pair of Osa-MA batteries with 20 missiles each. Pyotr Velikiy carries some S-300FM missiles and is the only ship in the Russian Navy capable of ballistic missile defence. The ships had some differences in sensor and weapons suites: Kirov came with SS-N-14 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missiles, while on subsequent ships these were replaced with 9K331 Tor surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems. The Tor installation is in fact mounted further forward of the old SS-N-14 mounting, in the structure directly behind the blast shield for the bow mounted RBU ASW rocket launcher. Kirov and Frunze had eight 30 mm (1.18 in) AK-630 close-in weapon systems, which were supplanted with the Kashtan air-defence system on later ships.

Other weapons are the automatic 130 mm (5 in) AK-130 gun system (except in Kirov which had two single 100 mm (4 in) guns instead), 10 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo/missile tubes (capable of firing SS-N-15 ASW missiles on later ships) and Udav-1 with 40 anti-submarine rockets and two sextuple RBU-1000 launchers.

Russia is developing a new anti-ship missile to equip Kirovs called the 3M22 Tsirkon, which is capable of traveling at hypersonic speeds out to at least 620 mi (540 nmi; 1,000 km)[10][11]. If the missile passes developmental tests, it could enter service in 2020, being deployed first aboard Admiral Nakhimov and later in Pyotr Veliky when it finishes upgrades in 2022. Depending on the choice of types of missiles will amount to 40 - 80.

Propulsion :

The Pyotr Velikiy’s propulsion system is based on a combination of nuclear power and steam turbine, with four nuclear reactors and two auxiliary boilers. The four steam turbines deliver 28,000hp. Two shafts drive two five-bladed, fixed-pitch propellers. The propulsion system provides a full speed of 31kt.

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 :
Missiles:
-20 × P-700 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) AShM
-14 × SS-N-14 Silex ASW cruise missiles (Ushakov only)
-96 × S-300F Fort SA-N-6 Grumble surface-to-air missiles (Ushakov, Lazarev, Nakhimov)
-48 × S-300F Fort and 48 S-300FM Fort-M (SA-N-20 Gargoyle) long-range SAM (Pyotr Velikhy)
-128 × 9K95 Tor (SA-N-9 Gauntlet) point defense SAM
-40 × OSA-MA (SA-N-4 Gecko) PD SAM
Guns:
-1 × twin AK-130 130 mm/L70 dual purpose gun (2 × AK-100 100 mm/L60 DP guns in Ushakov)
-8 × AK-630 six-barreled Gatling 30 mm/L60 PD guns (Ushakov, Lazarev)
-6 × CADS-N-1 Kashtan gun/missile system (Nakhimov, Pyotr Velikiy)
Torpedoes and others:
-1 × 10 RBU-1000 305 mm ASW rocket launchers
-2 × 6 RBU-12000 (Udav-1) 254 mm ASW rocket launchers
-10 × 533 mm ASW/ASuW torpedo tubes, Type 53 torpedo or RPK-2 Vyuga (SS-N-15) ASW missile
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

(Source : en.wikipedia.org and others sources)