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Russian Navy Chief: Nuclear Powered Missile Cruiser May Explode
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press Writer
March 22, 2004
Update: Admiral denies making statement shortly afterward

The heavy nuclear-powered guided-missile cruiser of the Kirov class, project 1144, was designed and built by the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. It is intended to destroy large surface ships and to protect friendly ships from an airborne or submerged adversary.

All in all, there were four project 1144 and 1144.2 ships built. The fifth cruiser, the Dzerzhinsky, was dismantled while still in dry dock.

The Pyotr Velikiy (Peter the Great) became an active part of the sea-going forces in 1995.

It is equipped with 20 Granit (Granite) long-range anti-ship missiles. While airborne, the missiles exchange target data. To hamper interception and achieve better target acquisition, the lead missile will follow a higher-altitude path, with the others flying low above the sea surface. If the leader gets intercepted, another missile will pop up automatically in its place.

The cruiser mounts the S-300F Fort air-defense system with 12 launchers and 96 missiles. There is also the Kinzhal (Dagger) self-contained ship air-defense system designed to protect the cruiser from anti-ship missiles, aircraft and ships.

The artillery is made up of an AK-130 coaxial 130-mm system, which can fire up to the maximum range of 22 km at 90 rounds a minute. The ship also carries Kortik (Dirk) quick-firing automatic systems.

The Kortik (Kashtan) quick-firing system is of modular design and includes two command and six fighting modules. The command module determines a threat and transmits the data to a fighting module, which then tracks the target, makes the necessary computations, and engages the target with missiles and cannon fire. Its cannon can shoot as many as 10,000 rounds a minute.

To provide for anti-submarine defense, there are three Ka-27PL or Ka-25RT helicopters, the Vodopad-NK (Waterfall) anti-submarine missile system, and the Udav (Boa) missile and bomb system.

The 140,000 HP nuclear power plant has two 300MW reactors and two auxiliary steam boilers. The ship-s maximum speed is about 30 knots, or 17 knots if propelled by steam.

It can stay out of dock for 60 days.

MOSCOW - Russia's navy chief said Tuesday that one of the nation's most powerful ships, the nuclear-powered Peter the Great missile cruiser, was in such dire condition that it could "explode" at any moment — a statement some observers attributed to infighting among the navy brass.

Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov said that the massive cruiser had been badly maintained and that "it's especially dangerous because it has a nuclear reactor."

At the same time, Kuroyedov said that he had ordered the captain to fix the ship in two weeks, casting doubt on the credibility of his alarmist statement.

"During that time, the captain must correct all the flaws related to the ship's maintenance," Kuroyedov said, according to the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies.

Kuroyedov didn't provide details of the ship's condition, but said the shortcomings also related to maintenance of the ship's nuclear reactor.

"Everything is all right on the ship where admirals walk, but in the areas where they don't, everything is in such condition that it may blow up at any moment," Kuroyedov was quoted as saying.

His statements were particularly shocking because the cruiser, the Northern Fleet's flagship, was officially named the best ship in the fleet last year.

The business daily Kommersant on Tuesday reported Kuroyedov's decision to declare the Peter the Great unfit for service and said it could have stemmed from his personal conflict with Retired Adm. Igor Kasatonov, uncle of the cruiser's captain, Rear Adm. Vladimir Kasatonov.

Kommersant said that Kuroyedov could be also aiming at the Northern Fleet's ex-chief, Adm. Gennady Suchkov, who had been temporarily relieved of his duties pending the official investigation into his role into the sinking of a decommissioned nuclear fleet submarine in August.

Kuroyedov sought to shift the blame for the sinking to Suchkov, but Kasatonov said during court hearings this month that Kuroyedov bears the main responsibility for the disaster, which killed nine of 10 crewmen on board the K-159 submarine when it sank in a howling storm on its way to a scrapyard.

Russian media also have criticized Kuroyedov over his role in the August 2000 sinking of the Kursk nuclear submarine and his failure to improve the navy's degrading condition. Many expected President Vladimir Putin to fire Kuroyedov, but he has managed to cling to the job.

In the latest blow to Russian military prestige, the navy failed to perform missile launches from nuclear submarines during last month's ambitious maneuvers personally overseen by Putin.

Kuroyedov claimed that the first of two scheduled launches had never been planned despite numerous earlier announcements to the contrary. The statement was widely ridiculed by Russian media.

On Tuesday, he said the second failed launch of a RSM-54 missile was due to its age.

"The missile was manufactured in 1987 and had a designated lifetime of 7 1/2 years," Kuroyedov said, adding that the navy now considers its RSM-54 missiles only 95 percent reliable.

The post-Soviet funding shortage has badly hurt the navy, prompting it to mothball a large number of ships and keep most others docked for years because of shortages of fuel and spare parts.