Project 1123 Kondor
Moskva class
The two Moskva class ships were introduced in 1967 and were homeported in the Black Sea. They deployed to the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. They were designated as "aviation cruisers" at least in part to avoid problems with the 1936 Montreaux Convention, which prohibited passage of "aircraft carriers" through the Dardanelles. Many Western analysts concurred with an anti-submarine definition of the ships’ purpose.
The first Soviet aviation ships, the design was something of a hybrid, with features of a missile cruiser forward, and a flight deck aft of the superstructure. Their design was heavily influenced by the French carrier Jeanne d’Arc and the Italian Vittorio Veneto. At the time of her construction, the Moskva was the largest ship ever built by the Soviet Union.
Alhtough of graceful appearance, their design was marred by a tendency to ride down in the bow. They were not capable carrying fixed wing aircraft, but embarked about 14 Ka-25 Hormone A anti-submarine helicopters. Developed to counter Western strategic missile submarines, they proved ineffective and unreliable. Only two ships were built, both of which were scrapped in the early 1990s. An additional unit was laid down but scrapped soon thereafter, and some Western analysts projected that as many as a dozen units of this class were planned.
