Kiev, 1973
To counter the Polaris-armed SSBN fleets of NATO, the Soviet Union required more organic ASW aircraft support for the fleet, especially to assist in the defence of the bastions then being created for the Soviets 'boomer' fleet in the arctic. Following on from the two Project 1123 Moskva helicopter-carrying cruisers, the third Pr.1123 ship, Kiev, was redesigned as the Pr.1134, the Soviet's first true aircraft carrier with a full-sized flight deck with an angled deck on the portside to allow the use of helicopters and V/STOL fighters. The Kiev was an interim design before the Project 1143 came into service at the end of the 1970s.
Kiev: completed 24/04/1973, commissioned into the Northern Fleet, decommissioned 14/07/1993
Displacement: 36,000 tons
Dimensions: 287m (long, overall), 232.7m (long, waterline), 54.5m (beam, including flight deck), 8.5m (draught, mean)
Armament: 12x2 76mm AK-257, 2x2 M-11 Shtorm SAM launchers, 1x2 MS-18 launcher for RPK-1 Vikrh, 2x RBU-1000 ASW rocket launchers
Airgroup: 18x Kamov Ka-20 'Hound' attack helicopters and Kamov Ka-25 'Hormone' ASW helicopters, 9x Yakovlev Yak-36M 'Freehand' V/STOL fighters
Machinery: 4x 45,000shp TV-12 steam turbines
Speed: 29.5kts
Drawing Notes: Special thanks goes to Alex (Alvama) for sending the source drawing for this. This is another Western artist's impression of Kiev, this time by Italian naval artist A. Nani for
Almanaco Navale 1971-72 (think Italian version of
Flottes de Combat/ Combat Fleets of the World). It draws heavily upon the Moskva in style but adds a hull and aft section very reminiscent of Western light carriers/LPAs. I find it very interesting because it slightly pre-dates the US Department of Defence artist's impression of what it called the 'Kuril Class', which came out in 1973. Indeed many features are shared but many are also individual to each version (to see them side-by-side to compare please see page 1 of this thread).
Another interesting feature is that despite Moskva having the AK-725 and it being known in the West by this time, A. Nani felt compelled to draw a mount reminiscent of the US Mk37 5in gunhouse, which I have retained here for its interest. The heavy 57mm gun armament was carried over into the US DoD speculations.
Apart from the RPK-1, there is no other fixed ASW system, so I have added a couple of RBU-1000.
The CCA radar aft is also my invention based on A. Nani's outline of a radar that similarly looks invented. The rest of the electronics fit is pure Moskva/Kresta era.
The source drawing was of the starboard side only - the port side profile is entirely my invention.
The airwing is comprised of the Ka-25 and I've added the Ka-20 with its funky-looking ASM and its nose-mounted MGs. The speculative Yak-36M is re-used from my earlier Kuril drawing.