''Baku'' (russian: Баку) was a ''Kiev''-class aircraft carrier of the Soviet Navy and the Russian Navy from 1987 to 1996. In 1991 the ship was renamed ''Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Gorshkov'' (russian: Адмира́л фло́та Сове́тского Сою́за Горшков "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov") in Russian service. Sometimes ''Baku'' is considered a separate class due to her improvements including a phased array radar, extensive electronic warfare installations, and an enlarged command and control suite. She was launched in 1982, and was in service from 1987 to 1991 in the Soviet Navy as ''Baku'', and from 1991 to 1996 in the Russian Navy as ''Admiral Gorshkov''. In 2004, ''Gorshkov'' was sold to India with extensive conversion and entered service as the new aircraft carrier .

History

The ship was laid down in 1978 at Nikolayev South (Shipyard No.444) in Ukraine, launched in 1982, and commissioned in December 1987. The delay in commissioning was largely caused by software bugs in the new command and control system. The ship was renamed ''Admiral Gorshkov'' after the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

in 1991, as the city of

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world an ...

was now in independent

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

Sergey Gorshkov Sergey Georgyevich Gorshkov (russian: Серге́й Гео́ргиевич Горшко́в; 26 February 1910 – 13 May 1988) was an admiral of the fleet of the Soviet Union. Twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, he oversaw the exp ...

was responsible for the expansion of the Soviet Navy during the Cold War. In 1994, following a boiler room explosion, the ship was docked for a year of repairs. Although she returned to service in 1995, she was finally withdrawn in 1996 and offered for sale. On 20 January 2004,

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

agreed to sell ''Admiral Gorshkov'' to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

after an extensive upgrade at Sevmash Enterprise. In December 2009, it was reported that India had agreed to pay a price of US$2.3 billion. The carrier, now named INS ''Vikramaditya'', was commissioned into the Indian Navy on 16 November 2013.

Design

The fourth of the Project 1143 aircraft carrying cruisers, ''Baku'' had many differences from the rest of the class, trialing technologies to be used on the ''Admiral Kuznetsov''. The most obvious is the massive passive electronically scanned array above the bridge. This was the

phased array In antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled array of antennas which creates a beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving th ...

antenna for the Mars-Passat ("Sky Watch") 3D air search radar. Sky Watch proved troublesome and was probably never operational. The biggest change to the weapon systems was the replacement of the 4K60 (SA-N-3 'Goblet') and

9K33 Osa The 9K33 ''Osa'' (, literally "wasp"; NATO reporting name SA-8 ''Gecko'') is a highly mobile, low-altitude, short-range tactical surface-to-air missile system developed in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and fielded in 1972. Its export version na ...

(SA-N-4 'Gecko') SAM launchers with four SA-N-9 'Gauntlet' VLS launchers. This allowed room for another two 4K80 (SS-N-12 'Sandbox') launchers. The two AA guns of the ''Kiev''s were replaced with 100 mm guns, and the SUW-N-1 launcher was removed. The air wing was the same as the other ''Kiev''s, consisting of a squadron of twelve

Yakovlev Yak-38 The Yakovlev Yak-38 (russian: Яковлев Як-38; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was the Soviet Naval Aviation's only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It ...

('Forger') V/STOL strike fighter aircraft (until they were retired in 1992), twelve

Kamov Ka-27 The Kamov Ka-27 (NATO reporting name 'Helix') is a military helicopter developed for the Soviet Navy, and currently in service in various countries including Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, China, South Korea, and India. Variants include the Ka-2 ...

('Helix-A') ASW/SAR

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

s and two Ka-31 ('Helix')

airborne early warning Airborne or Airborn may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Airborne'' (1962 film), a 1962 American film directed by James Landis * ''Airborne'' (1993 film), a comedy–drama film * ''Airborne'' (1998 film), an action film sta ...

helicopters. Flight operations were assisted by the distinctive new "Cake Stand"

tactical air navigation system A tactical air navigation system, commonly referred to by the acronym TACAN, is a navigation system used by military aircraft. It provides the user with bearing and distance (slant-range or hypotenuse) to a ground or ship-borne station. It is a mor ...

. ''Baku'' was used for trials of the Yak-141 Freestyle supersonic VTOL fighter.

Notes

References

External links

Проект ТАКР 1143.4 - БАКУ - АДМИРАЛ ГОРШКОВ Архивн.- Подробное описание проекта.

''Delay in Naval Projects''; Press Information Bureau, India

{{DEFAULTSORT:Admiral Gorshkov Kiev-class aircraft carriers Ships built at the Black Sea Shipyard 1982 ships Cold War aircraft carriers of the Soviet Union Ships of the Russian Northern Fleet Ships built in the Soviet Union