Zephyr Net

The 67500 tonne _Admiral Kuznetsov_, the only conventional aircraft carrier ever operated by the Soviet Navy, remains in service with the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet. Its sister ship, _Varyag_, remains at the Nikolayev shipyard, not quite complete. Its fate was decided in June 1994, when the Ukrainian government ordered it to be scrapped, after Russia's decision not to buy the vessel, and no success in attempts to sell it to other countries such as China and India.

The 75000 tonne, nuclear powered _Ulyanovsk_ was never completed; the hull has been scrapped.

The _Kuznetsov_, although nominally in active service, has so far been used primarily for testing aircraft and operating procedures [RAP comment: rumoured to become fully operational by August 1995], the Russian Navy having very little experience with fixed-wing carrier operations. Its primary aircraft type is the Sukhoi Su-33 single-seat multirole fighter (production version of the Su-27K prototypes), which is currently in low-rate production. The Mikoyan MiG-29K was tested aboard _Kuznetsov_ alongside the Su-27K, but has not been selected for production. A naval training version of the Sukhoi Su-25, the Su-25UTG, is also in production (a handful of another version, the Su-25UBP, were also built). The _Kuznetsov_ also carries a number of Kamov Ka-27/28/29/32 helicopters, in various subtypes.

Two AEW aircraft were developed but cancelled. The first was an AEW version of the Antonov An-72 twin-turbofan STOL transport, codenamed "Madcap" by NATO; this interesting design (the radar disc was mounted atop a forward-swept, V-shaped set of tail fins) was cancelled in favour of Yakovlev's Yak-44, a twin turboprop apparently very similar to the Grumman E-2 Hawkeye. The official reason given was that a turboprop was more efficient for the AEW role than a jet (although your FAQ compiler suspects that the fact that Yakovlev is a Russian company while Antonov is Ukrainian probably had something to do with it too). The Yak-44 has also in turn been cancelled (although a revival is being considered), and recent reports suggest that an AEW version of the Kamov Ka-32 helicopter is under development