Kirovs to be refurbished

[Thorvic]

I know this was talked about some years ago, but the Russian navy appears to have shored up plans now to refurbish the Nuclear powered Kirov class Battlecruisers. Only the Peter the Great the youngest ship was retained as fleet flagship whilst the rest were mothballed, now the Admirals are going to have the older ships refurbished and rearmed over the nect 10 years or so !!

Some potential there to have a look at modernising the Trumpeter or Dragon kits in Whiff terms till the final design and layout is confirmed 

[anthonyp]

I've been seeing stuff like this for the last 5-6 years, but not until this year have they been serious.

I've got three of those Kirov class kits, and got a couple ideas on modifying them (including one I'm giving the Sky Watch radar treatment to).  One thing's for sure, they are BIG ships.

[Joe C-P]

Hmm. Hmm. Hmmmmmm...

The Russian Navy hasn't really been doing much recently, so it might be hard to judge what could be done. Newer missiles wouldn't really be visible, nor would AA missiles. There's the electronics, of course, and a re-paint job, and maybe new helicopters - do the Ruskies have anything newer than the KA-2x/3x family?

[anthonyp]

Hmm. Hmm. Hmmmmmm...

The Russian Navy hasn't really been doing much recently, so it might be hard to judge what could be done. Newer missiles wouldn't really be visible, nor would AA missiles. There's the electronics, of course, and a re-paint job, and maybe new helicopters - do the Ruskies have anything newer than the KA-2x/3x family?

You're quite correct.  Other than finally building some late-to-post Cold War SSN's and SSBN's (which have been under construction for at least 15 years each), there's only been some frigates designed and built since the fall of the Iron Curtain.  The only large ships completed since that fateful day have been Sovremennyy class destroyers, and the last members of the large classes in production at the end (the single Udaloy II, the Ukranian Slava, and the Kirov class Pyotr Velikiy).

As for helos, they do have the backwards/on-HGH helos of the Ka-60/Ka-62 class (sorta backwards HH-65's) that are in service with the USSR, er, Russian Army, as well as the Ka-50/52's.  I'd assume they could mod the Ka-60/62's similar to the H-60 class the US did (30 years ago) and provide a new ship borne ASW/Patrol/UnRep helo.

The Russian Navy's missile programs have seen some spectacular failures over the last 20 years, but as for the Kirovs, they'd stick with their tried and true SAM armament, ASM armament, but might upgrade their sensors.  Maybe they'd buy the Chinese radar that's on their Type 52C type destroyer (of which they're building at least 4 more now).  Or, maybe, they'd figure out a version of the Sky Watch system that actually works.

[Thorvic]

Well there was talk in the article about a new SAM based on the land based S-400 system and a replacement of the Surface to Surface and CIWS systems. Then think about how new batch of Frigates and Corvettes have been streamlined and it does make you wonder how far they will go with rebuild/remodelling  .

[anthonyp]

Well there was talk in the article about a new SAM based on the land based S-400 system and a replacement of the Surface to Surface and CIWS systems. Then think about how new batch of Frigates and Corvettes have been streamlined and it does make you wonder how far they will go with rebuild/remodelling  .

Actually, the weapons systems associated with the corvettes and frigates are short range SAM's and their Harpoonskis (SS-N-25).  Yes, they are more stealthy, but they aren't power projection ships.  The replacement for their CIWS is quite advanced, using ship borne MANPADS and traditional cannons (updated for modern use), but their long range SAM capabilities are still in the Cold War.

I've read some on the S-400 conversion to Navy, and they've ran into problems.  Their success is just better than the Bulava, which until recently kept failing. Even though it's related to the S-300, the Top Dome radar (which was supposed to be expandable to S-400 ops) failed, and they're having issues making the S-400 radar navy capable.  The SA-N-20 (S-300) is still the latest operational SAM in service with the Russian Navy.  The Russian S-500 has not (according to Western Intelligence sources) been modified for Naval use.

[anthonyp]

Sat down this evening and built up my Red Banner Kirov II class CBGN.  Well, mostly built it.  I mounted the Slava class' SS-N-12 launchers forward, giving a dizzilingly amount of SSM's (36 total long range SSM's), and have been playing with mounting at least one other gun mount.  Still have yet to figure out CIWS armaments.  Also still thinking about an elongated Kirov type, but would need to make another trip up to Dean's in Flushing for some cheap Kirovs (they're 1/2 as expensive up there as I've seen online).

EDIT:  Heh. just realized I completed the Kirov II on October 1st, when I originally had intended to name the ship Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya which is October Revolution.