Key Points and Summary – After a notoriously long 25-year refit, Russia’s Kirov-class nuclear battlecruiser, the Admiral Nakhimov, is finally undergoing sea trials.
-The ship’s old launchers have been replaced with 176 vertical launch cells, packed with Russia’s latest weapons, including Zircon hypersonic missiles and Kalibr cruise missiles.
-The warship also received a heavily upgraded air defense network with new Pantsir-M systems, new anti-submarine weapons, and was almost completely rewired internally, explaining the project’s extreme length and complexity.
Russia’s Admiral Nakhimov: The Upgrades That Took So Long to Complete
Russia’s Kirov-class nuclear-powered battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov has officially returned to service, with reports revealing this month that the vessel’s 25-year-long upgrade is finally complete. Video footage shared online has since shown the battlecruiser navigating in the White Sea as part of its factory sea trials. The clips appear to show the warship being pulled out to sea by a tug.
First commissioned in 1988, the ship has been laid up at the Sevmash shipyard since 1999 – and while a modernization program was authorized in 2006, work did not begin in earnest until 2013. The project has been plagued by repeated postponements and delays, caused by a combination of supply and logistics issues and complex upgrade work that affected virtually every element of the vessel.
Here’s What’s New
At the heart of the cruiser’s long refit – which is easily one of Russia’s most ambitious naval upgrades in decades – are three major upgrades: its strike weapons, air defenses, and shipwide rewiring and electronics work.
The Nakhimov’s P-700 Granit missile pits were removed and replaced with ten universal shipborne firing systems (USFS), making up roughly 80 cells that are capable of firing Kalibr, Oniks, and Zircon missiles. The upgrade boosts the overall VLS capacity to 176 tubes – 80 of which are designed to accommodate Russia’s most advanced missiles. A further 96 launch cells are specifically reserved for air defense purposes, accommodating so-far unspecified surface-to-air missiles.
Those upgrades required a huge structural retrofit that involved the installation of new fire-control suites, cooling systems, and high-voltage wiring.
The ship also received a heavily upgraded air-defense network, reportedly including naval variants of the Fort-M (S-300). As noted by The War Zone, missiles in this series have long been standard in Kirov-class vessels. The Nakhimov also reportedly received Pantsir-M close-in weapons. Early reports suggested that as many as eight of the systems could be included in the refit, though later reports now suggest that six were fitted – with three on both sides of the ship.
Integrating new weapons systems into the vessel required the installation of radar arrays and the replacement of old and redundant power infrastructure.
Beyond weaponry, the refit also encompassed comprehensive rewiring, with thousands of kilometers of cable installed in the vessel, alongside new piping.
And, with new anti-submarine systems like the Paket-NK torpedo and Otvet anti-submarine missile, it’s not hard to see how refurbishment took so long.
About the Author: Jack Buckby
Jack Buckby is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society. His latest book is The Truth Teller: RFK Jr. and the Case for a Post-Partisan Presidency.
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