TAKR - Cold War History - After Gorshkov

And then the aircraft carrier's project got into the next bad luck zone. In 1976, both of his main supporters died - Grechko and Butoma. New Defense Minister Dmitry Ustinov soon covered the project 1153 and insisted on continuing the construction of the notorious TAVKR. And in 1978, the fourth (!) TAVKR project 11434 (the future "Baku / Admiral Gorshkov") was laid on the empty berth of the Chernomorsky plant in Nikolaev for the non-existent Yak-41 VTOL fighters. The idiocy of the situation is illustrated also by the fact, That ten years after commissioning, this same TAVKR still had to be converted into a deck carrier to sell India under the name Vikramaditya.

After the death of D. Ustinov (1984), the NPKB was instructed to begin designing the nuclear TAKR prospect 11437 with catapult aircraft (envisaged by the military shipbuilding plan of 1986-1995) with the total number and types of LAC recommended as far back as 1973 for further Design of the Project 1160.

In 1985 SG Gorshkov (who was almost 30 years serving as the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy) was "released" from his position on account of age and sent to the Group of Inspectors General of the Ministry of Defense of the USSR. With him, the fleet became an ocean rocket-nuclear formation and the second in the world after the US Navy, and the creation and development of domestic aircraft-carrying ships was a reality. Launch of TAKR Leonid Brezhnev - unique in the practice of domestic shipbuilding in terms of the launching mass (32 000 tons) - from an inclined slipway took place on December 4 of the same year already without his participation.

In 20 minutes after the descent, the second ship was laid at the CSZ Stacked Complex, which was given the name "Riga" unclaimed on the head TAKR. His bookmark was very effective: on the bottom block of the first block (the nose engine and boiler room), raised by gantry cranes, stood under the covers of the two GTPA and four main boilers mounted on their foundations.

In the spring of 1986, the chief designer of Prospect 11435 was appointed PA Sokolov (before - deputy chief designer of Prospect 1153 and TAKR), VF Anikiev in 1986-1987. Completed work on the creation of TAKR "Baku" pr. 11434. Like Novorossiysk, this ship was also completed with Yak-38 aircraft after its delivery to the Navy, since the creation of the Yak-41 fighter was excessively prolonged.

In June of the same year, the Government issued a decree approving changes to the main elements of Pr. 11435 on the second ship (TAKR "Riga"). After the death of O.K.Surkov in 1986, Yu.D. Sergeev was appointed deputy chief designer for aviation armament of TAKR (before that, he was the head of the department of the NPKB for aviation and technical means). In the summer of next year, TAKR "Leonid Brezhnev" (already the third in the process of its construction) was re-named "Tbilisi". In November 1988, the TAKR "Riga" and the ATAKR "Ulyanovsk" (head ship of Project 11437) were launched at the CSZ Stacked Complex. With the construction of ships 11435 and 11437, the NPKB and ChSZ went to the world technical level in the creation of large aircraft-carrying ships, achieved by the Americans.

Before the start of the mooring tests of Tbilisi, in the spring of 1989, LV Belov became the chief designer of the ship (before that, the deputy chief designers of the RCC, TAKR and the chief designer of the project 11437). Mooring tests were conducted between June 8, 1989 and May 25, 1990. In the fall of 1989, joint flight and design tests of its aircraft armament began on Tbilisi. On November 1, 1989, for the first time in the history of domestic aviation and the Navy, TAKR launched the first landing, followed by the Su-27K, MiG-29K and Su-25 UTG training aircraft. From May 28 to July 31, 1990, the ship successfully passed factory road tests.

Before the completion of the state tests of TAKR (December 25, 1990), conducted by the Governmental Commission under the leadership of Vice Admiral AM Ustyantsev, more than 300 flights were carried out from the cruiser. Then the tests of the aircraft continued on the Black Sea until the end of 1991, after which TAKR made the transition around Europe to the place of its permanent basing in the Northern Fleet, which entered in January 1992.

On October 4, 1990. TAKR "Tbilisi" was renamed "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Kuznetsov". This decision, albeit belated, reflects the outstanding role of N. G. Kuznetsov (People's Commissar of the Navy, Naval Minister, Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (Navy) in 1939-1955) in the development and combat activities of the Navy, the founder of the creation of an ocean rocket-nuclear balanced Fleet, in which the AV had to take its rightful place. For 16 years he persistently and persistently sought the creation of domestic AB, determining the combat stability of the remaining forces of the fleet and the ability to solve their problems. Sixteen years after his death, his name was deservedly appropriated to the largest warship of the Soviet fleet, which, unfortunately, was the only one in the Russian Navy.

A month and a half before the renaming of this unique ship, TAKR "Riga" began to carry on board the sacred name for the fleet - the Guards TAKR "Varyag", which, however, did not change its tragic fate predetermined by people deprived of patriotism.

Since November 1991, the Soviet Navy (now -Russia), because of a general reduction in military spending, suspended the payments of the ChernSpets (now owned by Ukraine). The result of such a short-sighted (and perhaps well-thought-out decision) was the termination of the completion of the Varyag (with its readiness of more than 65%) and the construction of Ulyanovsk, which led to the irretrievable loss for both of these ships, as well as significant resources and resources nested in their creation. As is well known, the hull of "Ulyanovsk", formed on the slab for three quarters, was cut in 1992 into metal, which for several years (from an average of not more than a year ) was lying on the territory of the plant before being sent for melting. "Varyag" in 1995 was excluded from the lists of ships of the Russian Navy and transferred to its construction plant against the debts of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, after which the Czechoslovakia signed a contract with an English company to sell to it the unfinished hull of this ship for scrap.

Russia adopted a new Navy Policy Framework up to the year 2030. The July 2017 document devoted considerable attention to creating high-precision long-range cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons, robotics, and more, but did not elaborate much on plans to build a new aircraft carrier.