Project 1144 Orlan, known by NATO as the Kirov class, are the largest surface combatants in service apart from aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, displacing about 28,000 tons fully loaded. First conceived to hunt submarines, the design shifted to attacking U.S. carrier strike groups with 20 P-700 Granit anti-ship missiles in silos below deck. Air defense came in layers: 96 S-300F long-range missiles, Osa-MA or Kinzhal point defense systems, and AK-630 Gatling guns or Kortik gun and missile mounts. Propulsion paired two nuclear reactors with two oil-fired steam boilers as a backup, producing up to 140,000 shaft horsepower and 32 knots. The transcript credits these ships with prompting the U.S. Navy to bring its World War II Iowa-class battleships out of retirement in the 1980s.

Five were planned and four finished; the fifth, to be named Kuznetsov, was canceled in 1990. Kirov, Frunze, Kalinin and Yuri Andropov were renamed in 1992 as Admiral Ushakov, Admiral Lazarev, Admiral Nakhimov and Pyotr Velikiy. Admiral Ushakov suffered a reactor accident in the Mediterranean in 1990 and was placed in reserve for lack of repair money. In March 2004 navy commander Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov said Pyotr Velikiy’s reactor could explode “at any moment,” and the ship spent a month in port while its crew lost a third of their pay. Scrapping of Ushakov and Lazarev began in 2021 because removing their spent fuel was costly and dangerous. Admiral Nakhimov, mothballed in 1999, went to the Sevmash shipyard for a long, delayed rebuild.

• The lead ship was laid down in 1974 and commissioned in 1980.
• Nakhimov’s refit adds 174 vertical launch tubes, 80 for anti-surface and 94 for anti-air weapons.
• Its new weapons include S-400 missiles and up to 60 Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missiles with a range of at least 620 miles.
• At hypersonic speed a plasma sheath forms around the missile and can absorb radar waves, making it hard to track.
• Delivery slipped from 2022 to 2023 and 2024, and Pyotr Velikiy is slated for the same refit once Nakhimov is done.