''Moskva'' was the first of her class of

helicopter carrier A helicopter carrier is a type of aircraft carrier whose primary purpose is to operate helicopters, and has a large flight deck that occupies a substantial part of the deck, which can extend the full length of the ship like of the Royal Navy ( ...

s in service with the Soviet Navy. Laid down at Nikolayev South (Shipyard No.444), ''Moskva'' was launched in 1965 and she was commissioned two years later. ''Moskva'' was followed by , which was commissioned in late 1968; there were no further vessels built, reportedly due to the poor handling of the ships in rough seas. Both were conventionally powered. The ''Moskva''s were not true "aircraft carriers" in that they did not carry any

fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinc ...

; the air wing was composed entirely of

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s. They were designed primarily as

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in 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 are t ...

(ASW) vessels, and her weapons and sensor suite was optimized against the nuclear submarine threat. Shipboard ASW armament included a twin SUW-N-1 launcher capable of delivering a FRAS-1 projectile carrying a 450 mm torpedo (or a 5 kiloton nuclear warhead); a pair of RBU-6000 ASW mortars; and a set of torpedo tubes. For self-defense, the ''Moskva''s had two twin SA-N-3 SAM launchers with reloads for a total of 48 surface-to-air missiles, along with two twin 57 mm/80 guns. A " Mare Tail" variable depth sonar worked in conjunction with heliborne sensors to hunt submarines. Their strategic role was to defend the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

ballistic missile submarine A ballistic missile submarine is a submarine capable of deploying submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) with nuclear warheads. The United States Navy's hull classification symbols for ballistic missile submarines are SSB and SSBN – t ...

bastions A bastion or bulwark is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fi ...

against incursions by Western

attack submarines An attack submarine or hunter-killer submarine is a submarine specifically designed for the purpose of attacking and sinking other submarines, surface combatants and merchant vessels. In the Soviet Navy, Soviet and Russian Navy, Russian navies th ...

, forming the flagships of an ASW task force. On 2 February 1975, a fire in the ship's bow caused severe damage. She was out of action for a year whilst repairs were made. ''Leningrad'' was taken out of service in 1991, but ''Moskva'' remained in service until the late 1990s, when she, too, was scrapped.

Notes and references

References

Project 1123 Kondor - ''Moskva'' class

''Moskva'' class

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moskva Moskva-class helicopter carriers 1965 ships Aircraft carriers of the Russian Navy Ships built at the Black Sea Shipyard Ships built in the Soviet Union Maritime incidents in 1975