Upgraded Kirov class: Project 11442 [Admiral Nakhimov]

June 21, 09:58,
updated June 21, 10:24 am
"Admiral Nakhimov" can enter the test in December or May
Mikhail Budnichenko, General Director of Sevmash, said that the cruiser is at the final stage of repair and modernization.

KRONSTADT, June 21. /TASS/. The heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov, after repair and modernization at Sevmash, may enter sea trials in December 2023 or May 2024. This was announced to TASS during the International Naval Salon by the General Director of Sevmash, Mikhail Budnichenko.

"If we have time, the cruiser will go for sea trials in December this year. If not, then this will happen with the start of navigation in May next year," he said.

According to Budnichenko, the cruiser is at the final stage of repair and modernization. Cabins are being decorated, equipment and ship systems are being adjusted. More than three thousand people are involved in the work. At the same time, mooring trials of the ship are underway. He is preparing to move in the crew.

The cruiser has been under repair since 1999. Real work on it has been carried out since 2013. The main result of the modernization is a noticeable increase in the strike power of the cruiser. It will carry, in particular, 10 universal ship-based firing systems for 8 Caliber-NK and/or Onyx cruise missiles each. In the future, he will receive Zircon hypersonic missiles.

IMDS-2023 takes place in Kronstadt from 21 to 25 June. The event is organized by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. For the first time, the Museum of Naval Glory and the congress and exhibition center on the territory of the tourist and recreational cluster "Island of Forts" became the venue. The exposition of enterprises of the shipbuilding and shipbuilding industries brought together more than 250 leading Russian and foreign participants. TASS is a strategic media partner of IMDS-2023.

https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/18075495

Big_Gazza wrote:I find it hard to fathom how there no publically available images of the Nakhimov in her current state. Security will be very tight but surely someone has taken a snap or three?

Just like you, many things are not clear to me, but what to do.
A few days ago they wrote that the tests could start in September, while now they are already writing about December or May.

The ship is parked right outside Sevmash for the refitting.


If you have a bazillion to spend on satellite images you can see it.

An extremely expensive proposition if SAMs are used to intercept Russian artillery shells. They might choose to install the Sea Ram missile to engage Russia artillery shells, but even then that too would be quite expensive.

Ironically the Russians are already developing a cure for something that isn't a threat yet... they are developing 10kg mini SAMs for convoy defence designed to engage individual artillery shells and rockets for defending logistics forces operating on the battlefield... such missiles would be ideal at sea too for a range of threats from tiny ships to their biggest ships and could be carried in enormous numbers because of their low weight.

The British have nothing like that available AFAIK.

A Russian ship will fire 4-5 shells in a volley. So to intercept these 5 shells a British destroyer will fire an equal number of SAMs.

A target 150km away the 152mm Coalition on a naval vessel is going to be a twin barrel system and likely have a rate of fire of something like 80 rounds per minute plus so it will probably fire a dozen shells just to be difficult because even if you have enough missiles dealing with that number of threats at once will be a problem for most western ships... and it would only take a couple to get through to do some real damage.

The US had developed a naval version of the Javelin for exactly this purpose.... to engage enemy artillery shells. Even that is an expensive proposition.

Sea Ram was a frankensteins monster of bits and bobs... they used bits from Stinger and Hellfire and Javelin and sidewinder I believe to create this missile.

Yeah, well, excuse me if I do not spend that kind of money on commercial satellite imagery.

It is still right there on the exact same spot though. Here is the latest Sentinel-2 satellite picture from June 21st.


Anything better will cost $$$.

I am also interested in how it will look, in particular how they did the radar upgrades, but I guess we will just have to wait.

Admiral Nakhimov may enter sea trials in December 2023 or May 2024, depending on whether the necessary work is completed in time. Now the ship is finishing the cabins and setting up the onboard equipment, the ship is preparing for the crew's settlement. Up to 3 thousand people are involved in the work at the same time.

She may still surprise us in September - I hope

Sea trials of the heavy nuclear-powered missile cruiser Admiral Nakhimov will begin in May next year.

I guess better late than never.

I don't know about that. If Russia is serious about it's new naval doctrine then this ship should be one of the cornerstones of the future Russian Blue Water Navy.

ALAMO wrote:I have a feeling, that they are consistently losing interest in the whole project, and experience from the UkroWar is one of the nails to the coffin.

I would say that the military experience from a land war at Russia's doorstep never had anything to do with the requirements of an ocean going navy, which fulfills completely different roles in advancing the interests of the country. Of course the direct defence of the motherland takes precedence over international commerce and influence, but at day's end the empire needs to be prevented from freely looting the resources in 3rd word countries, or they will use them to keep bringing war to their enemies. So both are necessary sides of the same problem and both need to be addressed to reach a long term solution for the security and sustainable development of Russia.

ALAMO wrote:To begin with, it is Russia's position to deal with everybody other than Americas ON LAND.
Or using closed and small seas where this behemoth is simply oversized.

And since most Russian enemies are American vassals, the statement above implies Russia will need to deal with America beyond their own territory, one way or another. Victory will not come only through defensive actions

ALAMO wrote:I have a feeling, that they are consistently losing interest in the whole project, and experience from the UkroWar is one of the nails to the coffin.

It is a mammoth job to restore and modernize a ship like this.

What does experince from the Ukraine war have to do with it ?

I would say experience has shown that only old non upgraded ships of the Russian navy seem to be the vessels that get hit or suffer damage... the Moskva was considered useful enough for them to use it, and regardless of what happened to it the fact that it was armed with OSA and perhaps the fire fighting systems on board were not properly functioning suggests that perhaps a proper upgrade might have led to it still being on the top of the water.

Edit: Plus if they wanted to use it for its large long range sensors then imagine how much more useful it would have been with upgraded long range sensors as well as better defences and onboard equipment.

They didn't send T-72s into combat with optical rangefinders and all the gear they had in the 1970s and if they did they would expect it to not do so well.... so why would they expect anything different from any ship?

Russia wont be fighting US ships, more likely any conflict will be with US vassels... for which even the unupgraded Moskva would be a serious challenge... which western country or west aligned country could ignore 16 Vulcan missiles?

Part of the excessive costs of the upgrade of the Nahkimov will be that these systems are all new and they haven't put these things in any new ships yet... the Nahkimov is a battlecruiser so its electronics and systems wont be the same as those fitted to Corvettes and Frigates... and the sensors they are connected to will be different too, so brand new equipment for the Battlecruiser, will be the same for the next upgrade PtG and perhaps any Atlant class they decide to upgrade too, but will be related to the new stuff they are going to put into new Destroyers they will be building soon and new cruisers they will be building next.

The systems they put into the upgraded Udaloy might be related but not likely the same because the upgraded Udaloys wont be destroyers any more they will be large frigates.

ALAMO wrote:Blue water navy meaning differs from the 70s perspective bro.
By a few inches I would say

The PRC will not agree

You can also include Japan and South-Korea in the same sentence.

These are the world's premium trading countries by more than "a few inches"

Russia has recently taken a renewed interest in Africa. BRICS is going to expand to many other countries in the near future. Russia has some important trading partners in the Americas as well. Most of these countries will be trading via sea lanes. If Russia wants to be competitive in the world markets it will have to protect it's trade interests abroad.

GarryB wrote:I would say experience has shown that only old non upgraded ships of the Russian navy seem to be the vessels that get hit or suffer damage... the Moskva was considered useful enough for them to use it, and regardless of what happened to it the fact that it was armed with OSA and perhaps the fight fighting systems on board were not properly functioning suggests that perhaps a proper upgrade might have led to it still being on the top of the water.

I don't even think this is the case

I think it's safe to say that Moskva was not sunk by missiles , or mines,

We can say either it was truly an ammo detonation,

Or those surface drones came and did a surprise hit

Which all in all, is fine, because it was the first such attack which happened and caught the VMF off guard

In fact what it proved was that had Moskva had a small escort like 22160, or even 22800, utilizing ANAPA sonar module for anti sabotage,

The drone would have been picked up, although in stormy conditions maybe it would have made it more difficult,

And a machine gunner could have picked them off once the sonar crew alerted them to the incoming threat

I don't think that the situation merits a criticism of even older surface warships like Moskva, who in surface warfare could do well, but probably never expected an attack like that one

It was a situation which could catch any ship in such a situation

Look at the USS Cole during Iraq, when a RHIB boat loaded with explosives put a giant hole into the hull

The only reason it was salvaged was that it was in port, and then a heavy lift ship took it back to the US

IMO that's why people thought it was a failure of SAMs ,

But now we can safely say, it was not a AsHm attack

We have seen enough of those drones hitting the bridge, Olenegorsky Gorniak,  and other attempts on Vasiliy Bykov at relatively equal ranges, and even farther

To ascertain that Moskva was the victim of a surface drone attack





In fact the strike occurred in the same vicinity, and although pics are not clear, we can see a hole roughly the same as with Olenegorsky Gorniak, or USS Cole

Moskva is a product of bad luck, the ships technologies could still perform in surface to surface warfare

It's just at that time, who was prepared for a plastic hull small object, zooming in stormy weather, completely below hull , and exploding on contact?

It's a lesson learned, but the other Slava cruisers Varyag and Marshal Ustinov are still combat capable ships and simply should be updated with their own sonars to protect against this sort of attack

Instead of manned machine-gun posts all ships should be equipped with such devices.
Networked with the ships radars, sonars and optronics.

I agree an optical electronic system with a tracking system with option to switch to slaved sight could be an ideal solution

I don't think these older warships have an issue, s300 and OSA are still very potent

It's the surface drones which are,

Also another thing to consider are jamming systems

Unlike IZD-53 these drones are not utilizing neural networks , YET

So that means that have a man in the loop, usually remote control

So that means you can probably also install a jammer onboard, and fry the systems onboard controls

Meaning the gun could be a last effort, if the radar/sonar can pickup the drone from adequate distance and cue the jammer

Doesn't have to be a krasukha type, but something with range to at least 10km - at least until these ships are scrapped entirely

Until then, they are still needed and useful