Military

Every Russian Aircraft Carrier Throughout History

Chris Lange

Published: April 27, 2024 10:50 am

During World War II, the Soviet Union was relatively limited in terms of its naval power. In fact, the Red Army relied mainly on its ground forces to achieve success over the course of the conflict. However, after bearing witness to the Pacific Theater in the final years of the war, the Soviet Union resolved to muster a force of aircraft carriers to compete on the world stage. (This nation has the largest navy in the world.)

The Cold War era saw the advent of the Kiev-class aircraft carriers and later the Kuznetsov-class, which were primarily designed for anti-submarine warfare. There were a few other carriers that were manufactured during this time, but they did not reach the level of prominence of Kiev and Kuznetsov.

Here, 24/7 Wall St. is taking a closer look at the Russian and Soviet Navy over the years with an emphasis on aircraft carriers. To identify the Russian and Soviet Union aircraft carriers used throughout history, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed a catalog of aircraft carriers from Haze Gray, an online database of aircraft carriers. We ordered these aircraft carriers according to when they were commissioned. We included supplemental information regarding the class of carrier, aircraft housed, crew size, and propulsion.

Currently, the Admiral Kuznetsov is Russia’s only operational aircraft carrier. However, it has faced constant maintenance issues and economic constraints have only made this worse. It is capable of housing a series of Sukhoi and MiG fighter jets as well as a host of helicopters. (These are all the warship and submarine classes in the Russian Navy.)

Here is a look at all of Russia’s aircraft carriers throughout history:

Why Are We Covering This?

While Russia has a history of building and operating aircraft carriers, its current capabilities have been overshadowed by major naval powers like the United States. With current geopolitical tensions on the rise and an ongoing conflict in Ukraine, it’s important to have a grasp of military capabilities of other adversarial nations.

Moskva

• Class: Moskva-class
• Type: Helicopter carrier
• Commissioned: 1967
• Aircraft: 14 helicopters
• Crew: 850
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, 4 boilers, 2 shafts, 100,000 hp, 30 knots

Leningrad

• Class: Moskva-class
• Type: Helicopter carrier
• Commissioned: 1969
• Aircraft: 14 helicopters
• Crew: 850
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, 4 boilers, 2 shafts, 100,000 hp, 30 knots

Kiev

Kiev (PDM 1.0) by jaa1996

• Class: Kiev-class
• Type: Aircraft cruiser
• Commissioned: 1975
• Aircraft: 31 VTOL
• Crew: 1,600
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, 8 boilers, 4 shafts, 200,000 hp, 32 knots

Minsk

File:Panorama of the Soviet Aircraft Carrier Minsk at Minsk World, Shenzhen, China.jpg (BY-SA 3.0) by Sudip2118

• Class: Kiev-class
• Type: Aircraft cruiser
• Commissioned: 1978
• Aircraft: 31 VTOL
• Crew: 1,600
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, 8 boilers, 4 shafts, 200,000 hp, 32 knots

Novorossiysk

• Class: Kiev-class
• Type: Aircraft cruiser
• Commissioned: 1982
• Aircraft: 31 VTOL
• Crew: 1,600
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, 8 boilers, 4 shafts, 200,000 hp, 32 knots

Baku

• Class: Kiev-class
• Type: Aircraft cruiser
• Commissioned: 1987
• Aircraft: 30+ VTOL
• Crew: 1,600
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, 8 boilers, 4 shafts, 200,000 hp, 31.5 knots

Kuznetsov

• Class: Kuznetsov-class
• Type: Aircraft cruiser
• Commissioned: 1990
• Aircraft: 30
• Crew: 1,500
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, 8 boilers, 4 shafts, 200,000 hp, 30 knots

Varyag

Varyag, Russian Missile Cruise... (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Franco Folini

• Class: Kuznetsov-class
• Type: Aircraft cruiser
• Commissioned: 2012
• Aircraft: 30
• Crew: 1,500
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, 8 boilers, 4 shafts, 200,000 hp, 30 knots

Ulyanovsk

• Class: Ulyanovsk-class
• Type: Supercarrier
• Commissioned: Scrapped
• Aircraft: 80
• Crew: N/A
• Propulsion: Steam turbines, 4 reactors, 4 shafts, 200,000 shp, 30 knots