Admiral Kuznetsov

Russia’s only aircraft carrier — a Soviet-built STOBAR cruiser that has spent more years laid up and burning than at sea, and now faces probable scrapping after a chain of refit disasters.

Overview

The Admiral Kuznetsov (Project 1143.5) is a heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser of the Russian Navy, commissioned in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved. Designed with a ski-jump bow and arrested-recovery wires — a STOBAR configuration — it carries Su-33 and MiG-29K tactical fighters along with Ka-27/Ka-31 helicopters. Unusually for a carrier, the ship embeds a heavy anti-ship missile battery of twelve P-700 Granit (SS-N-19) launchers. After a single combat-credible Mediterranean deployment in 2016-17, it has been immobilized by a sinking dry dock, a crane collapse, and multiple onboard fires. A 2025 19FortyFive assessment described the ship as almost certainly never returning to service and the Russian Navy as “quietly mothballing” it, making scrapping the most realistic outcome.19FortyFive

🔒 The full Admiral Kuznetsov file is for BattlePolicy Pro members. Below the line: development history, design and capabilities, variants, the combat record, advantages and limitations, comparable systems, outlook, the full specifications table, our sourcing, and the analyst assessment — procurement, suppliers and the BattlePolicy verdict. Unlock the full file with BattlePolicy Pro →