Ulyanovsk Class

## History

### Background

The Soviet Union's Nevsky Engineering Design Bureau developed the third-generation heavy aircraft cruiser Kuznetsov with Su-33 in the 1980s (plan 1143.5/order 105) and the Varyag aircraft carrier (plan 1143.6/order 106) ), at the same time, in December 1984, the construction of the fourth-generation large-scale nuclear-powered heavy aircraft cruiser began to be constructed. The plan number was "Plan 1143.7", and the preliminary design was completed in 1986. On November 25, 1988, the "Order 107" named "Ulyanovsk" was moved to the shipyard, which was in charge of construction at the Black Sea Shipyard.

To this end, the Soviet government allocated funds to carry out the second large-scale technical transformation of the Black Sea Shipyard, including the construction of an assembly and welding workshop, allowing the hull to be increased in sections to 200 tons; A 350-ton self-propelled flatbed truck was built, and a transport lane from the new workshop to the slipway was built; the length of No. 0 slipway was lengthened by 30 meters; a horizontal slipway-side platform with a total weight of 1,700 tons was built. The slipway and slipway-side platform were installed. Two gantry cranes each with a lifting capacity of 900 tons, and other new cranes were installed, so that the number of cranes used on the entire slipway reached 10; A Liman River channel was completed to ensure that the Ulyanovsk would be able to go to sea in the future.

## Design

### Hull and flight deck

The hull design is derived from that of Project 1153 Orel, but is larger in both length and beam. The Orel-class ships had both an angled flight deck, and catapults for aircraft.

While originally designed in the STOBAR configuration the were converted to CATOBAR during a refit. When they were in the STOBAR cnfiguration takeoff was achieved by using a 12-degree ski-jump on the bow. This was replaced with 2 electromagnetic catapults. There is also an angled deck with arresting wires, which allows aircraft to land without interfering with launching aircraft. The flight deck has a total area of 14,700 square metres (158,000 sq ft). Two aircraft elevators, on the starboard side forward and aft of the island, move aircraft between the hangar deck and the flight deck.

### Propulsion

All ships of the class are powered by two A1B nuclear reactors, housed in separate compartments. The resulting steam spins four propeller shafts, producing a maximum speed of over 33 knots (61 km/h).

The *Ulyanovsk*-class ships also have bulbous bows to improve speed and fuel efficiency by reducing wave-making resistance. As a result of nuclear power, the ships are capable of operating continuously for over 20 years without refueling and are predicted to have a service life of over 60 years.

### Armament

In addition to the aircraft carried on board, the ships carry defensive equipment for use against missiles and hostile aircraft. These consist of launchers designed for defense against aircraft and anti-ship missiles, as well as either three or four 20 mm Phalanx CIWS.

The presence of nuclear weapons on board Russian aircraft carriers since the end of the Cold War has neither been confirmed nor denied by the Russian government. As a result, the presence of a Russian aircraft carrier in a foreign port has occasionally provoked protest from local people, for example, when *Kostroma* visited Kiel, Germany, in 1998.

### Modifications

Between 2028-2030 the Ulyanovsk Class went through an extensive modernization and overhaul. The overhaul incuded the removal of the ski jump in favour of electromagnetic catapults, replacement of the reactors with two more powerful A1B reactors, and modernization of electronics and armament.