Soviet Aircraft Carrier Ulyanovsk

''Ulyanovsk'' ( rus, Улья́новск, p=ʊˈlʲjanəfsk), Soviet designation Project 1143.7, was a fixed-wing aircraft carrier laid down on 25 November 1988 as the first of a class of Soviet nuclear-powered supercarriers. It was intended for the first time to offer true blue water naval aviation capability for the Soviet Navy. The ship would have been equipped with steam catapults that could launch fully loaded aircraft, representing a major advance over the , which could only launch less-loaded aircraft from their ski-jumps. However, construction of ''Ulyanovsk'' was stopped at about 40% after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.Culp, Wesley. “The Soviets Tried and Failed to Build a Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier to Match US Flattops.” Business Insider, 8 June 2022, https://www.businessinsider.com/the-soviets-tried-failed-to-build-nuclear-powered-aircraft-carrier-2022-6.

History

Background

The Soviet Union's Nevsky Engineering Design Bureau developed the third-generation heavy aircraft cruiser '' Kuznetsov'' with Su-33 in the 1980s (Plan 1143.5/Order 105) and the ''Varyag'' aircraft carrier (Plan 1143.6/Order 106), at the same time, in December 1984, the construction of the fourth-generation large-scale nuclear-powered heavy aircraft cruiser began. The plan number was "Plan 1143.7", and the preliminary design was completed in 1986. On November 25, 1988, construction for "Order 107" ― named ''Ulyanovsk'' ― officially began at the Black Sea Shipyard.

To this end, the Soviet government allocated funds to carry out the second large-scale technical transformation of the Black Sea Shipyard, including:

* the construction of an assembly and welding workshop, allowing the hull to be increased in sections to 200 tons;
* a 350-ton self-propelled flatbed truck;
* a transport lane from the new workshop to the slipway;
* the length of No. 0 slipway was lengthened by 30 meters;
* a horizontal slipway-side platform with a total weight of 1,700 tons;
* installing a slipway and slipway-side platform;
* two new gantry cranes each with a lifting capacity of 900 tons, and other new cranes, bringing the number of cranes used on the entire slipway to ten;
* a river channel to ensure that the ''Ulyanovsk'' would be able to go to sea in the future.

Ending

Due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the amount of funding to complete the carrier was insufficient, and the aircraft carrier construction plan was suspended. As of November 1991, Ulyanovsk was only 40% complete.

The No. 2 ship "Plan 1143.8" originally planned to be built was also cancelled at the same time.

Design

''Ulyanovsk'' was based upon the 1975 Project 1153 Orel, which did not get beyond blueprints. The initial commissioned name was to be ''Kremlin'', but was later given the name ''Ulyanovsk'' after the Soviet city of Ulyanovsk, which was originally named Simbirsk but later renamed after Vladimir Lenin's original name because he was born there.

It would have been 85,000 tonnes in displacement (larger than the older carriers but smaller than contemporary of the U.S. Navy). ''Ulyanovsk'' would have been able to launch the full range of fixed-wing carrier aircraft, as it was equipped with two catapults as well as a ski jump. The configuration would have been very similar to U.S. Navy carriers though with the typical Soviet practice of adding anti-ship missile (ASM) and surface-to-air missile (SAM) launchers. Its hull was laid down in 1988, but construction was cancelled at 40% complete in January 1991 and a planned second unit was never laid down.

In accordance with Decree No. 69-R of February 4, 1992, signed by the First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Kostyantyn Masyk, on February 5, 1992, scrapping of the ship's hull structures began. By October 29, 1992, the slipway was free, and the ship (order 107) had ceased to exist.

Air group

The ''Ulyanovsk'' air group was to include 68 aircraft with the following planned composition:

* 44 fighter aircraft, combination of Sukhoi Su-33 (Su-27K) and Mikoyan MiG-29K fighters
* 6 Yakovlev Yak-44 RLD airborne early warning aircraft
* 16 Kamov Ka-27 anti-submarine warfare helicopters
* 2 Ka-27PS air-sea rescue helicopters

The ship was to be equipped with two "Mayak" steam catapults made by the Proletarian Factory in Leningrad, a ski-jump, and four arresting gear. For storing aircraft, it was to have a 175×32×7.9-m hangar deck with aircraft elevated to the flight deck by three elevators with carrying capacities of 50 tons (two on the starboard side and one on the port). The stern was intended to house the "Luna" optical landing guidance system.

See also

*List of ships of the Soviet Navy
* List of ships of Russia by project number
* Project 23000 aircraft carrier

References

;Citations

;Bibliography
*

External links

Hazegray.org entry



GlobalSecurity.org.


Robin J. Lee.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ulyanovsk
Aircraft carriers of the Soviet Navy
Ships built at the Black Sea Shipyard
Ships built in the Soviet Union
Cancelled aircraft carriers
Abandoned military projects of the Soviet Union
Abandoned military projects of Russia