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The first three Soviet missile cruisers of the Slava class were launched between 1979 and 1983; a fourth unit launched already in 1990 was never completed,
and some other units were cancelled in 1990 coinciding with the economic collapse of the country. These cruisers can be considered as the most powerful
surface ships in the Soviet/Russian Navy leaving apart the battlecruisers of the Kirov class; in fact, it is believed that they were developed as a
fail safe project in case of having difficulties with the development of that class. From a technological standpoint, the project seems to not be
really innovative in any aspect from previous cruisers which were simply smaller and fitted with some older systems.
These ships are characteristic for the unusual disposition of the antiship armament; sixteen fixed launchers are stacked at the sides of the bridge
superstructure revealing that this is all what these cruisers carry as antiship armament. This solution allows to place the largest possible number of
missiles without requiring complex reloading devices; with the introduction of vertical launching systems it can be considered outdated, however it
has the advantage of not taking space on the interior of the hull. Still, vertical launchers exist in these ships for the SA-N-6 surface-to-air missiles.
The rest of the armament is that usually found in the Soviet warships. It is notable however the number of close-in weapon systems installed.
Slava class: 3 units - Marshal Ustinov (ex Admiral Flota Lobov), Moskva (ex Slava), Varyag (ex Chervona Ukrayina)
Type: Missile cruiser
Length: 185.3 meters
Beam: 20 meters
Draught: 6.4 meters
Displacement (standard): 7375 tonnes
Propulsion: 2 x shaft, 2 x cruise steam turbine, 2 x cruise gas turbine M70, 4 x boost gas turbine M8KF, 2 x exhaust gas boiler, 121000 horsepower
Speed: 33 knots (61.1 kilometers/hour)
Range: 10000 nautical miles (18520 kilometers) at 16 knots
Complement: 480
Armament: 16 x SS-N-12 SSM missile launcher, 8 x SA-N-6 SAM 8-cell vertical launcher, 2 x twin SA-N-4 SAM launcher,
1 x AK-130 twin 130-millimeter 70-caliber dual-purpose cannon, 6 x AK-630 CIWS 30-millimeter cannon,
2 x RBU-6000 ASW mortar, 2 x pentuple 533-millimeter ASW torpedo launcher, 1 x Ka-25/27 ASW helicopter
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