Nuclear powered battle cruiser sails again for the first time since 1997

The Admiral Nakhimov will be the largest operational warship in the Russian Navy. It will also be one of the oldest.

On August 19, the 251-meter-long battle cruiser was assisted by tugs out from the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk in northern Russia. The shipyard has not officially commented on the departure of the giant warship, but several social media channels from the region posted photos as the Admiral Nakhimov went out to the White Sea for the first time since 1999. The Soviet built warship sailed for the Northern Fleet last time in 1997, and was towed to Severodvinsk in 1999 after being laid-up in Severomorsk north of Murmansk for a two-year period. State-controlled information agency TASS on Monday confirmed that the nuclear-powered battle cruiser had set out for the first stage of tests. Later, the warship will sail north to the Barents Sea for sea trials that will last for several months before being officially deployed with the Navy for combat operation.

Decades of modernisation of the battle cruiser will eventually give the Northern Fleet a weapons platform packed with rockets, torpedoes, missiles and guns like no other of the surface warships in the Russian Navy. Original plans said it would be ready for voyages with the Northern Fleet in 2018. Progress, however, was slow and the one-plan-after-the-other for sea trials in White Sea were postponed. In 2022, it was said relaunch should come in 2023, then followed by another announcement saying autumn 2024. The Admiral Nakhimov will replace the Pyotr Velikiy, the vessel of the same class that since autumn 2022 has been laid up at pier in Severomorsk.

As previously reported by the Barents Observer, the Pyotr Velikiy is likely to be sent to scrap.