Russia is bringing back its 1980s battle cruisers - the largest surface-combat ships in the world - as Putin seeks to further bolster his nation’s military machine

• The 800ft-long Kirov battleships were some of the most feared worldwide 
  
• Admiral Nakhimov is first in line to be fitted with cutting-edge missiles
  
• At least two of the boats will be refurbished as the Russian navy expands

Vladimir Putin has made no secret about his plans to modernise his country's navy.
And it has now emerged that Russia's largest ships are to be fitted with its newest missiles as part of an estimated 20trillion rouble (£245billion) naval overhaul.

The Kirov-class battle cruisers were some of the biggest and heaviest in the world, but have fallen out of use since their launch in the early 1980s with just one - the Pyotr Velikiy (Peter the Great) still afloat.

Instead of letting the rest of ships rust away in dry dock, the navy is said to be starting its gradual re-haul of two of the four nuclear-powered ocean giants.

First to be kitted out with cutting-edge new weapons, sensors and engines will be the third battle cruiser, the 252-metre-long Admiral Nakhimov,Russian news agency Tass reported. 


The Admiral Nakhimov is thought to have received £900million in funding from the Kremlin in 2011 to begin its military rehaul, which will take place in a shipyard near the Finnish border

The 800-foot long Admiral Nakhimov in the early days of its sailing. It was launched in April 1986 but is thought to have been out of action since 1999

Pyotr Velikiy (Peter the Great) during a naval exercise in the Baltic Sea, near Kaliningrad. It will likely undergo a huge modernisation to have it fitted with cutting-edge missiles and sonar technology

She will rejoin the navy's Northern Fleet in 2019, according to Foxtrot Alpha, which reported that the Admiral Nakhimov will have multi-purpose vertical launch systems to propel anti-ship, anti-air and surface-to-surface missiles. 

It will likely also carry missiles with a range similar of those which hit Syria from the Caspian Sea, and the much-rumoured Zircon hypersonic missiles, which are due to be ready by 2020, the site said.  

The Admiral Nakhimov was completed in 1986 and its redevelopment is thought to have been in the pipeline for some time, as the navy invested 50billion roubles (around £900million) in 2011 in anticipation of its overhaul, according to the Moscow Times. 

When the Admiral Nakhimov is re-launched in 2019, the still-sailing Northern Fleet flagship Pyotr Velikiy will be brought in to undergo the same modernisation. 

The Pyotr Velikiy will have some repairs done at the Murmansk shipyard, close to the Finnish border before being moved to Severodvinsk, further east along the coastline, when the shipyard has space after Admiral Nakhimov is finished. 




The Pyotr Velikiy will go in for repairs when the Admiral Nakhimov is completed in 2019 as part of a huge overhaul plan underway in the Russian navy, which had its heyday in the 1980s when these ships were new

Two other boats in the fleet, Admiral Ushakov and Admiral Lazarev (also known as Frunze until 1992), are currently out of commission due to their unstable nuclear engines making them too dangerous to sail.

The red-decked Admiral Lazarev is laid up in a town port town called Fokino near the North Korean border and will be third in line for modernisation some time after 2020, if given the green light.

Russia has plans for a three-staged revamp of its navy, starting with submarines.
Smaller ships will make up the second part of the plan and finally battle cruisers, where the money will come from remains a hotly debated topic. 

But the former Soviet country announced a 5 per cent cut to its defence budget earlier in March. 
This is due to falling oil prices and ongoing Western sanctions following conflict with Ukraine.  


Though the Pyotr Velikiy is in action now, its nuclear propeller system was once so unstable that there were fears it could 'explode at any time'.


Putin, in naval uniform, has invested billions of roubles in upgrading the country's defences

'There is nothing better to both counter a [US carrier battle group] force and project power onto an Islamic State-type rogue nation for the foreseeable future,' Maxim Shepovalenko, a retired Russian navy officer, now an expert at the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technologies told the Moscow Times.

'In the case of the Pyotr Velikiy, we have a nuclear-powered ship with theoretically unlimited endurance [that is] a sort of versatile arsenal, stuffed with a full range of guided missiles — including up to 80 cruise missiles and 216 surface-to-air missiles,' he added. 

The news about Russia's battle cruiser plans gives weight to a US report released last December which said that the country would make 'strides in fielding a 21st-century navy capable of a dependable national defense' over the next decade. 


The red-decked Admiral Lazarev is laid up in a town port town called Fokino near the North Korean border and will be third in line for modernisation some time after 2020, if given the green light

The report explained how the modern Russian navy is 'an advanced, globally capable force' and says its 'role within the Russian state and armed forces should be clearly understood'.

Eric Wertheim, an independent naval analyst, said the Historic Transition report and its predecessor are both example of the United States comparing the capabilities of its naval force against Russia's.

Wertheim said: 'It is almost as if time was paused for 20-plus years between the two naval reports—and now the Russian navy and military is reawakening from its slumber.

'This latest report from ONI allows us to take stock of this newly awakened and growing force.'

Russia's navy already has 56 submarines, 31 major surface ships and 99 minor surface vessels and the future 21st-century version is 'projected to be more capable on a unit-by-unit basis'. 


Aerial starboard view of the foredeck of a Kirov-class ship shows four single 30 mm Gatling guns (in purple), two pop-up (lowered) SA-N-4 SAM launchers (in red), 20 SS-N-19 cruise-missile launchers (in green), 12 SA-N-6 SAM launchers (in blue), and one twin SS-N-14 antisubmarine warfare/surface-to-surface missile launcher (in yellow). Source Business Insider for Yahoo Finance 

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