Upgraded Kirov class: Project 11442 [Admiral Nakhimov]

Also iam concerned about Atalant, Slavas. How to install modern USUK on this class?
That is a near impossible task, and regretteble i see no future plans for these ships.

The Orlans however, can be rebuilt and modernized for a very long time. And they have much greater potential in that that the Iowas ever had.

The Slavas will be a challenge... it really depends on what is below decks beneath the above deck weapon launchers.

I rather suspect that as a command ship as backup in case the orlan class failed they were filled with electronics and that replacing all that with new wiring and more modern more capable smaller and more compact systems space might become available for vertical launch systems that penetrate the deck. Again with automation and a huge reduction in the number of sensors and systems (those old soviet ships had several radar systems for each weapon type including search and tracking radars, whereas modern multifunction systems can replace it all).

They wont be as formidible as the Orlans, but with a compact nuclear propulsion system their performance will be greatly improved too.

If they are putting nuclear propulsion in destroyers then they will likely do the same for their cruisers.

The Iowas were massive heavy battleships with enormous crews even after upgrades their main purpose was their guns.

The purpose behind upgrading the Orlans is their capacity for weapons and sensors as command vessels.

I can predict that if they want to base 1 or 2 Mistrals in Pacific, they will have to modernize Nakhimov and base her there too. And as Gary said, with new systems on board, automation can lower her crew number alot.

Now the Frunze and Kirov, i suspect Frunze or Lazarev as it is called will also be called back to ranks. The first Kirov i suspect will face scrapping.
Simply, if u want to have one or two Orlans in service, u need three to guarantee they will be operational when they are nedded, and not in a refit.

Normally three would be a minimum, but in this case I suspect most of the time the Orlans will be escorting groups that include the Kuznetsov.

In such a case I would probably base one Orlan in the Northern Fleet with the Kuznetsov and one in the Pacific fleet to lead any task force that might include mistrals.

With only one full carrier (K) it would make sense to manage the upgrades and refits so that whenever the K is available to sail that at least one Orlan is also available to join her.

With the upgrades to the K and the Orlans the machinery and sensors and weapons will be largely unified which should make maintainence and support and operations much cheaper and easier... the UKSK bins in the corvettes are the same bins as in the frigates and the destroyers and the cruisers and even the helicopter carriers... where previously the Slavas had SS-N-12 Sandbox missiles, and the Kirovs had the SS-N-19 Granit missiles and totally different propulsion systems and totally different sensors. It was a mess.

Why doesn't 1155 have the endurance neccesary to escort Mistral?
or 22350? Or the perspective destroyer?

Endurance is not just measured in on board fuel... it is measured in weapons capacity and the amount of food that can be carried.

The enormous weight of weapons on an upgraded orlan means it can do more than just defend itself... it can defend a large area of sea around it too.

Even assuming the 1155 with its 8 heavy anti sub weapons got 4 UKSK launchers, that means 32 missiles that can be a combination of anti ship, land attack, and anti sub.

One Orlan will have more than double the number of launch tubes which gives it more options. It will also have a lot more anti aircraft missiles. Its radars and sensors will be larger with longer detection ranges. Even just the fact that it carries one more helo (3 instead of 2) is more useful. (Two is actually rather better than one, while three is better than two it is not as much better than two as two is of one...)

Don't get me wrong the Orlans wont be super ships... there will be other ships in the group too but the Orlans will have a presence that no smaller ship could match.

They wont be cheap but they will serve the Russian Navy well for the next 20-30 years at the least and will mean that in 10-15 years time when new Russian carriers are being looked at they can look at new cruisers to escort them rather than having to rush a new design in now.

Most advanced weapons of its class would mean UKSK vertical launchers, naval Pantsir-S1 replacing the Kashtans, and perhaps Vityaz/Redut...

I wonder if they will fit a new nuclear power plant so it wont need to worry about refuelling all the time...

Why would it be the only nuclear-powered cruiser?
Peter the Great isn't going anywhere.

I think he is referring to the fact that they will likely replace the old reactor combined with boilers to super heat steam to drive the gas turbine propulsion with newer more powerful nuclear reactors developed for new carriers that should greatly improve performance with a far more compact design.

Until Peter the Great goes through a similar upgrade it will be the only nuclear only powered Russian cruiser.

Just focussing on the armament:

Main weapons strike: 20 P-700 Granit supersonic long range anti ship missiles

Air defence: Long range: S-300F launchers with 96 missiles (Peter the great has S-300FM)
                  Short range: 2 x Osa-MA launchers with about 20 missiles each replaced with TOR
                                    
Anti Sub: SS-N-14 with anti sub and anti ship capability.
               RBU rocket launchers firing anti sub rockets, anti diver rockets and anti torpedo rockets replaced with SS-N-15.
               10 x 21 inch torpedo/missile tubes able to launch torpedoes or SS-N-15 ASW missiles (later replaced the SS-N-14).

Gun armament: 2 single barrel 100mm gun turrets replaced by two twin 130mm gun                  turrets.
                        8 x 30mm gatling mounts later with Kashtan added.

Likely upgrades will replace the SS-N-15, SS-N-14, and SS-N-19 with UKSK launch bins for a likely total of about 80 missiles. The SAMs will likely have the Rif and Rif-M replaced with Redut, TOR replaced with upgraded TOR, 30mm gatling guns replaced with Duet turrets and Kashtan replaced with Pantsir-S1. RBU rockets will likely be replaced with PAKET, and the main gun armament will likely be twin barrel 152mm Koaltion guns or possibly bigger guns of 203mm calibre.

New electronics and a revision of the radar suite fitted and it should be a very capable ship.

This will be very interesting.

I suspect certain choices are obvious like the UKSK launcher bins for Calibre/Oniks/Yakhont/Moskit/Klub series AShM/LACM/ASW missiles.

Replacing Kashtan with Pantsir-S1 is logical, and Duet for the AK-630 gun turrets, while the SAM arrangement will also be interesting with the question of Redut probably replacing Rif and Rif-M, but will there be an upgraded TOR or just more Redut bins, and will they install Morfei. Another question regarding SAMs is will it carry naval S-500... or should I ask will naval S-500 be ready by 2018 or will it be added later? Will it be fitted to be able to carry a Ka-52 as well as Ka-32s and will other UAVs be added?

Otherwise the electronics and sensors and indeed powerplant might be a good indication of the sort of thing they will be putting on the Kuznetsov too.

I suspect a simpler power system might be worth looking at based on the new compact reactors they are developing for carriers, which should be smaller and more compact than the current boiler reactor arrangement.

Finally the guns... will it retain 130mm or go for 152mm or will there be a surprise and the 152s are for the Frigates and the new cruisers might be 203mm?

I suspect the 152s are probably long enough ranged to make them very useful with perhaps two twin turrets on the upgraded vessels and lots and lots of ammo.

Very good news all round.

The insides of the ship are largely unknown till they get it into drydock and have a decent look at her insides.

From what I can tell if this is a major upgrade that will entail removing the existing nuclear and boiler propulsion arrangement to be replaced with new modern compact reactors developed for their new carriers. All the current weapons... and that is a substantial amount... are replaced with new generation versions, all the electronics and sensors are also to be replaced... this is going to be all new and will become the model for the upgrade of the Kuznetsov and the Peter the Great and the resulting vessel will be a very powerful surface combatant.

The Sigma naval system is in many ways an AEGIS type system except the Russian navy is integrating the system into all their platforms from Corvette to Carrier and Sub to satellite. The resulting vessel will be much more capable than any other single vessel in service. Talk of 80 launch tubes for the UKSK system suggest the potential for a formidable strike capacity... likely to include Redut and S-500.

A yawn-worthy pace to modernize a ship, even if it is a battlecruiser.

Most of the stuff they are doing is untested... including the new reactors, not to mention the new EM assisted 152mm main guns. When this program is completed then they can start expanding and going for speed.

If they want carriers... and it seems they do... as there are no moves to scrap the Kuznetsov, then they will need ships to operate as part of a carrier battle group.

Large ships are very expensive to build but with modern automated systems they don't need enormous crews.

I doubt the Russian MIC could build a vessel this size from scratch right now... they are currently building the smaller vessels they need and are not pumping frigates and destroyers out at a huge rate yet either. It is going to take time naturally, so while they have some hulls available they are being very smart to take advantage of them and give them a good overhaul to get them into service much more quickly.

By upgrading the existing Kirovs they are accepting the problems with the advantages... problems include lots of unknowns and limiting themselves to a hull shape that was developed some time ago which limits stealth performance. The Kirovs were already very clean designs already however and the fact that they are only upgrading these vessels rather than building them from scratch means they can move them more easily because they already float and are based on a proven design.

The result is that they will get cruisers well before they otherwise would have been able to get them and likely much cheaper too.

Capital ships for supporting carriers are powerful vessels in terms of sensors and weapons and are useful on their own so it makes sense to strive to get them first.

Once they have done one the other two should be easier and quicker, though it is hard to say till they are actually cracked open.

The huge radar arrays and weapons and electronics will be largely modular and so lessons learned with the first conversion will be applicable in the upgrade of the other two Kirovs but also with the upgrade of the Kuznetsov and indeed the new carriers that they haven't even finalised the design of... using modular components means they can fit together only in certain ways.

The Kuznetsov is supposed to be going in for a refit soon and will be coming out in 2017-2018 so both vessels should be  ready around the same time... hope they decide to come to the South Pacific...

Yes, the shipyard being built by the South Koreans is able to build carrier sized vessels including oil and gas tankers, but it makes more sense right now to concentrate on the other ships they will need including small patrol vessels and support ships and just upgrade existing sea worthy designs to extend their lives while larger and larger new ships are mastered again.

The skills weren't lost overnight and they wont come back overnight just by putting a lot of money into this. This needs to be planned and managed properly to ensure they get a decent balanced force... it wont be as big as the Soviet Navy was, but it should be more capable... the simple addition of the UKSK launchers means ships that used to be anti ship or anti sub can now be both and more... they can have long range attack capability too... which was only previously possible with a nuclear warhead. The new terminal guidance systems mean it can now have precision long range strike capability now too... which makes it much more flexible.

The new hupersonic missiles... if they are compatible with UKSK launchers should mean they are even more capable across the fleet... in fact imagine a new type of weapon... a ballistically delivered hypersonic missile cluster... a SLBM with a ballistic range of say 3,000km with a warhead payload that consists of 3 hypersonic cruise missiles with a range of 5,000km. The Missile is launched from a submerged submarine and follows a ballistic path to 3,000km range where the payload enters the atmosphere and then turns horizontal at about 30km altitude and the payload splits open with 3 hypersonic missiles separating and accelerating to mach 6-7 with scramjet engines... after the ballistic flight they will already be travelling that fast or faster anyway so they could coast at high altitude till their speed starts to bleed down and then start up their scramjet engines and turn and head towards their targets that might be a further 5 thousand kms away... few ABM systems could stop such threats as they will be able to fly dogleg flight paths to the target and indeed with sub launch could come from completely unanticipated directions. Flying very fast and very high they could release a dozen small nuke warheads during their flights and wreak havoc on an enemy state... their goal not to be a precision first strike weapon but to be a destruction spreader that ABM systems wont be able to cope with that will ensure the enemy state does not have localised damage only in specific strategic areas... a real MAD weapon.

Armament modernization will be extensive so I guess Kalibr/S-400/(perhaps S-300/Morfei)/Vityaz/Vulkan or Onix and Kalibr

By 2018 Zirconium and likely Brahmos-II.