What Happened To The Soviet Union’s Aircraft Carriers After the Cold War

The first type of carrier the Soviet Union built was a Moskva-class carrier, with the Moskva being the first of the two in its class. The Moskva and then Leningrad were commissioned in 1967 and ’69, respectively. However, it wasn’t the typical carrier that the general public would come to know in the 21st century. The Moskva-class ships were helicopter carriers that could transport 14 helicopters around the ocean. Their primary mission? Hunt the best nuclear submarines from the Cold War era and protect Soviet submarines. The helicopter carriers were armed with a set of torpedo launchers and a pair of mortars to combat enemy subs. Furthermore, they were capable of launching a five kiloton nuclear warhead.

It wasn’t until 1975 that the USSR built its first fixed-wing carriers. They built four Kiev-class carriers, consisting of the Kiev, the first of its class, followed by the Minsk, Novorossiysk, and the Baku. These capital ships fulfilled multiple roles, on top of launching aircrafts. The front half of the ships were armed to the teeth with SS-N-12 Sandbox anti-ship missiles, SA-N-3 surface to air missile launchers, eight AK-630 30-millimeter gatling guns, and anti-submarine rocket and torpedo launchers. Each Kiev could also launch a 350 kiloton nuclear warhead intended to breach U.S. carrier battle group defenses.

The Kiev carriers could hold up to 22 Yak-38 “Forger” jets, the only VTOL aircraft in the Soviet arsenal. However, since they took on anti-submarine roles as well, the carriers cut that down to half so they could carry a dozen Ka-25 helicopters.