''Ulyanovsk'' ( rus, Улья́новск, p=ʊˈlʲjanəfsk), Soviet designation Project 1143.7, was a

fixed-wing A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using Lift (force), aerodynamic lift. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotorcraft, rotary-wing aircraft (in which a Helicopter rotor, r ...

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

laid down on 25 November 1988 as the first of a class of Soviet

nuclear-powered Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

supercarriers. It was intended for the first time to offer true

blue water Maritime geography is a collection of terms used by naval military units to loosely define three maritime regions: brown water, green water, and blue water. Definitions The elements of maritime geography are loosely defined and their meanings hav ...

naval aviation Naval aviation / Aeronaval is the application of Military aviation, military air power by Navy, navies, whether from warships that embark aircraft, or land bases. It often involves ''navalised aircraft'', specifically designed for naval use. Seab ...

capability for the

Soviet Navy The Soviet Navy was the naval warfare Military, uniform service branch of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy made up a large part of the Soviet Union's strategic planning in the event of a conflict with t ...

. 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 The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

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 The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

's Nevsky Engineering Design Bureau developed the third-generation heavy aircraft cruiser '' Kuznetsov'' with

Su-33 The Sukhoi Su-33 (-33; NATO reporting name: Flanker-D) is a Soviet/Russian all-weather Carrier-based aircraft, carrier-based twinjet, twin-engine air superiority fighter designed by Sukhoi and manufactured by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Produ ...

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

, 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_under_construction_at_Nikolayev_Shipyard

''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 Ulyanovsk,, , known as Simbirsk until 1924, is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River east of Moscow. Ulyanovsk has been the only Russian UNESCO Ci ...

, which was originally named Simbirsk but later renamed after

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

's original name because he was born there. It would have been 85,000

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s in

displacement Displacement may refer to: Physical sciences Mathematics and physics *Displacement (geometry), is the difference between the final and initial position of a point trajectory (for instance, the center of mass of a moving object). The actual path ...

(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 Ski jumping is a winter sport in which competitors aim to achieve the farthest jump after sliding down on their skis from a specially designed curved ramp. Along with jump length, competitor's aerial style and other factors also affect the fin ...

. The configuration would have been very similar to U.S. Navy carriers though with the typical Soviet practice of adding

anti-ship missile An anti-ship missile (AShM or ASM) is a guided missile that is designed for use against ships and large boats. Most anti-ship missiles are of the sea-skimming variety, and many use a combination of inertial guidance and active radar homing. ...

(ASM) and

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

(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 The Sukhoi Su-33 (-33; NATO reporting name: Flanker-D) is a Soviet/Russian all-weather carrier-based twin-engine air superiority fighter designed by Sukhoi and manufactured by Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aircraft Production Association, derived f ...

(Su-27K) and Mikoyan MiG-29K fighters * 6 Yakovlev Yak-44 RLD airborne early warning aircraft * 16 Kamov Ka-27

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...

helicopters * 2 Ka-27PS

air-sea rescue Air-sea rescue (ASR or A/SR, also known as sea-air rescue), and aeronautical and maritime search and rescue (AMSAR) by the ICAO and International Maritime Organization, IMO, is the coordinated search and rescue (SAR) of the survivors of emergenc ...

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 The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is the surface on which its aircraft take off and land, essentially a miniature airfield at sea. On smaller naval ships which do not have aviation as a primary mission, the landing area for helicopters ...

by three elevators with carrying capacities of 50 tons (two on the

starboard Port and starboard are Glossary of nautical terms (M-Z), nautical terms for watercraft and spacecraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the Bow (watercraft), bow (front). Vessels with bil ...

side and one on the port). The

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. O ...

was intended to house the "Luna" optical landing guidance system.

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