Soviet Alternative Navy

[eswube]

Fantastic drawing.

[Hood]

Sovetsky Soyuz, 1980

The Soviets required a nuclear-powered cruiser to escort its growing aircraft carrier fleet and to act as a flagship for anti-submarine forces and the defensive screen protecting the Arctic nuclear ballistic-missile 'bastions'.
The Project 1144 would combine formidable surface-striking power with aerial protection for the fleet. Designed to use existing nuclear powerplants, the first ship, the Sovetsky Soyuz was completed in 1980 but delays in her construction had put the design rather behind the latest Soviet missile and radar technologies and so the remainder of the class were cancelled in favour of the Project 1164 and 1165 classes. Laid up in 1992, the Soyuz was refitted but never again went to sea and became a training ship until she was scrapped in 1997.

Displacement: 25,000 tons
Dimensions: 240m(long, overall), 28m (beam), 8m draught
Armament: 3x2 76mm AK-726, 4x6 30mm AK-630 CIWS, 4x2 & 2x1 P-500 Bazalt SSM launchers, 3x2 M-11 Shtorm SAM launchers, 2x2 9K33 Osa SAM launchers, 53mm torpedo tubes for torpedoes & RPK-2 Vyuga, 1x RBU-6000 ASW rocket launcher
Airgroup: 4x Ka-25 'Hormone' helicopters
Machinery: nuclear powered
Speed: 30kts

Drawing Notes: OK this is not a carrier, but carriers need escort right? Actually, Western artist's impressions of Soviet naval ships beyond carriers are actually quite rare so I just had to include this one. This one comes from the magazine Scale Ship Modeller, probably around 1979-81 when the Kirov-class were still speculative in Western sources and little was known beyond their large size and nuclear-power. The artist of this interpretation named the ship Sovetsky Soyuz before adding the name Kirov later on. The style and speculated armament seems very much like an enlarged Kresta with a superstructure modelled on that of Kiev along with its forward armament layout. The result makes an interesting comparison to the real Kirov.
(The source can be seen here:https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/thread ... ost-250495).
Special thanks goes to Gollevainen to enable its completion.

[Gollevainen]

Great looking addition. This particular early western impression of Kirov class has always been favorite of mine, nice to see it coming in life at SB.

[Rainmaker]

Really fantastic work Hood. Looking forward to seeing more entries in this series!

[Hood]

Great looking addition. This particular early western impression of Kirov class has always been favorite of mine, nice to see it coming in life at SB.

I have to confess I just realised that I had made a mistake. On looking at the blurry source image again, I found that what I had interpreted as a SAM launcher amidships was actually another AK-276!
So this brings the gun armament to no less than 10 76mm barrels! Certainly adds to the oddity. I quite like my AU version with Osa as its more in fitting with what is likely, but an all gun version looks like this.

[Mitchell van Os]

It can overcome the best Hood!

But this is a really beautiful ship as it is now. I like it more as the slava class actually, and that is one of my favo's.

[eswube]

Fantastic drawing!

[erik_t]

Certainly a great drawing, although I can't imagine the electronics amidships would achieve on-paper performance with such cluttered installations. The after AK-726 should have the shading flipped.

[Hood]

Project 1808 Mius, 1988


Project 1808.3 Tobol, 2021

With the creation of the carrier fleet in the early 1970s with and a more global posture, the Soviet Navy began looking at improving its at-sea replenishment capability. The sole Project 1859 ‘Berezina’-class ship (of the same name) was followed by an improved Project 1808 design which was beamier and improved in a number of detailed areas to improve the cargo offloading. There are two liquid refuelling and two solid store gantries as well as two 15-ton and two 10-ton cranes.
The resulting class of eight ships was curtailed; the first ship, Volga was completed as an aviation training ship and two more were completed as command ships and a further two cancelled. Three ships did however complete as planned, Mius, Zeya and Tobolo. The last ship remains in service today, refitted with modern self-defence weapons during the late 2000s to replace her original heavy battery of guns and missiles. She serves with the Northern Fleet but is scheduled to be retired by 2025.

Displacement: 36,000 tons (full load)
Dimensions: 214.7m (long, overall), 200.4m (long, waterline), 30m (beam), 8.53m (draught, over sonar dome)
Armament: (original design) 2x2 76mm AK-726 gun mounts, 1x2 Zif-122 Osa-M SA-N-4 'Gecko' SAM launcher, 2x4 Strela-2M SA-N-5 'Grail' SAM launchers, 4x 30mm AK-630 CIWS mounts, 2x RBU-1000 ASW rocket launchers; (as refitted in 2009-11) 1x1 76mm AK-176, 3x Kortik CIWS (2x6 GSh-30K cannon & 8x 9M311K SAMs each), 2x RBU-1000 ASW rocket launchers
Aircraft:: hangar for 2x Kamov Ka-25 ‘Hormone' or Kamov Ka-27 ‘Helix' series helicopters
Cargo Capacity: 16,000 tons of fuel (including avgas), 2,000 tons of dry provisions (including 150 tons chilled and 40 tons of ammunition), 500 tons fresh water
Machinery: 2x 16,500shp T-1 gas turbines
Speed: 21.5kts
Complement: 607

Ships in Class
Volga: completed 24/7/1978 to a modified design as the Project 1808.1 training aircraft carrier
Mius: completed 26/5/1980 to baseline Project 1808 design, assigned to the Northern Fleet, decommissioned in 2005
Zeya: completed 14/9/1982 to baseline Project 1808 design, assigned to the Pacific Fleet, decommissioned in 2009
Tobol: completed 9/6/1984 to baseline Project 1808 design, assigned to the Pacific Fleet, laid up 1992-95, recommissioned and transferred to Northern Fleet in 1996, refitted to Project 1808.3 standard 2009-11, extant in 2021
Neva: completed 23/6/1985 to a modified design as a Project 1808.2 command ship
Kama: completed 17/10/1987 to a modified design as a Project 1808.2 command ship
2 ships: planned as Project 1808 ships, re-planned as Project 1808.4 space tracking ships

[odysseus1980]

Nice, although I believe that the images should be post in the opposite order. The second image first and vice versa, because the twin AK-276 is an older system.