Kirov Class Battlecruiser

During the Cold War, the Soviets built the Kirov, the largest and most powerful post-WWII surface ship in the world and it retains that distinction even today.

Commonly referred to as a ‘battlecruiser’, the Kirov would be classified as a battleship by today’s standards, with its very heavy offensive capability, but would not be a battleship by conventional standards as it lacks anything approaching the armor and ruggedness – the ability to stand and fight and keep fighting while taking damage – of a traditional battleship.  It more closely approximates a PT boat than a battleship – a heavy hitter that cannot, itself, take a hit.

Here’s is Frunze’s (2^nd ship of the class) armament, as built:

Function	No.		Designation
ASuW	20		SS-N-19 Shipwreck (P-700 Granit)
ASuW	1		AK-130 dual 130mm
AAW / SAM	96		SA-N-6 Grumble (S-300F)
AAW / SAM	44		SA-N-4 Gecko
AAW / SAM	128		SA-N-9 Gauntlet (3K95 Kinzhal)
AAW / Point Defense	8		AK-630 30 mm
ASW / ASuW	10		533 Torpedoes
ASW	2		RBU-1000
ASW	1		RBU-6000

For comparison, here is the updated Velikiy’s (4^th ship of the class) armament:

Function	No.		Designation
ASuW	20		SS-N-19 Shipwreck (P-700 Granit)
ASuW	1		AK-130 dual 130mm
AAW / SAM	48		SA-N-20 (S-300FM)
AAW / SAM	48		SA-N-6 Grumble
AAW / SAM	64		SA-N-9 Gauntlet (3K95 Kinzhal)
AAW / Point Defense	6		CADS-N-1
ASW / ASuW	10		533 Torpedoes
ASW	2		RBU-1000
ASW	2		RBU-12000

Let’s take a look at some characteristics of the Kirov class and, ultimately, how those characteristics relate to today’s naval force structure and ship design.

Mission.  Any discussion must begin with an understanding of its mission.  What was/is its mission?  What was/is its purpose?  Well, no one knows exactly what the Soviets had in mind when they built the ship but, by most accounts, its mission was to sink US carriers.  For this, it had 20 SS-N-19 Shipwreck missiles.  These were 15,000 lb, 33 ft long, Mach 1.6-2.5, ship killers with 1650 lb warheads. 

SS-N-19 Shipwreck

Presumably, the Kirovs were intended to operate together, as a group.  Four Kirov class cruisers, operating together and able to generate a salvo of 80 Shipwrecks, would have been a frightening and nearly unstoppable force especially in the days prior to the widespread appearance of Aegis.  The first Aegis ship, the USS Ticonderoga entered service a few years after Kirov.

As a carrier-killer, the Kirovs would have had no choice but to encounter American carrier aircraft and the Soviets, therefore, provided the Kirovs with massive anti-air capability with around 160 SAMs of varying ranges plus multiple point defense weapons.  The Kirovs were well protected!

Considering their mission – to sink US carriers – and their incredible degree of AAW protection, the Kirovs were quite similar to WWII battleships in the sense that they were built to stand and fight.  Whereas the WWII battleship depended on armor for much of its protection, the Kirovs depended on massive AAW protection to prevent taking hits.  On the other hand, the Kirovs had no great armor protection that I’m aware of and if they did take hits they would have quickly been put out of action.  We see in this the difference in design philosophy between the WWII ship designer who believed in armor versus the modern ship designer who believes in AAW defense.

It is also possible that the Soviets intended the Kirovs to be battleship killers.  At the time, the US still maintained and operated battleships and persistent rumors suggest that the Soviets feared our battleships more than our carriers. 

Balance of Armament.  The Kirov represented the epitome of the ‘all or nothing’ philosophy of combat.  Alternatively, one could call it the ‘one shot’ philosophy.  Kirov had a massively heavy offensive punch but it was a punch that was very limited in number and good only for one shot.  There were no other anti-ship weapons other than the guns and there were no reloads for the anti-ship missiles.  Kirov would have one shot at the enemy, albeit a very heavy one, and then would be impotent as far as offensive capability was concerned.  This was not a balanced weapons load with a variety of offensive weapons and varying size/range missiles.  This was the equivalent of betting ‘all in’ in poker – one shot and you either succeeded brilliantly or you were finished as a threat.

The Kirovs were built for offense.  They were built to strike and strike hard, unlike the US Navy today which is mostly defensive in nature.

Sensors.  An interesting aspect of the Kirov design is the density and redundancy of sensors on the ship which goes far beyond Western ship designs.  While likely intended as compensation for reliability and construction quality issues, the sensors do provide a significant degree of battle resilience (assuming they work!) in the face of damage – an outstanding quality for any warship.

As the Kirov class entered service, the US was beginning to build Aegis ships.  It is interesting to speculate what a Kirov could have been with its enormous AAW capability coupled to an Aegis type system.  Such a ship would have been even more impressive than it already was and would have been as close to invulnerable to aerial threats as it was possible to be!

Arsenal Ship.  One could look at the Kirov class as arsenal ships, in a sense.  They contained a very heavy anti-ship missile load, much as the arsenal ship would have although the Kirov’s ‘heaviness’ stemmed from the size of the missiles more so than numbers.  The major difference between the Kirovs and the arsenal ship is that the Kirovs were capable of independent operations and self-defense whereas the arsenal ship was intended to be a missile ‘barge’, incapable of independent operation and requiring AAW protection from escort ships.

Armor.  This is the key aspect of the Kirov’s design.  As far as I know, the Kirovs had no particularly noteworthy degree of armor.  For a ship that was nearly as big as an Iowa class battleship and carried a massive amount of weapons and sensors, the lack of armor is striking and is what prevents the class from being classified as a battleship.  The Kirov’s displacement of 28,000 tons versus the Iowa’s 58,000 tons amply demonstrates the lack of armor.  One can’t help but wonder if placing the concentration of weapons that the Kirovs had into an unarmored hull was a wise decision.  As we noted, the Kirovs were a ‘one shot’ design.  If the enemy happened to get the first shot in, it is quite likely that the Kirovs would be rendered at least a mission kill, if not worse.  Thus, the lack of armor would prevent the Kirovs from taking a hit and continuing to fight.  Like the LCS of today, the Kirovs would likely have been a one-hit mission kill.  The Kirovs represented a lot of weapons, sensors, and money in an unprotected hull.  This potential vulnerability was exacerbated by the lack of aircraft carriers to provide an additional layer of protection.  US ships were, and still are, unarmored but have the benefit of carrier aircraft to provide additional defense.

The lack of armor strikes me as the key weakness in the Kirov design.

Modern Assessment.  For Russia, one Kirov is a relatively small threat when going up against Aegis or Aegis-equivalent AAW ships.  Aegis was designed to handle saturation missile attacks and one presumes that 20 Shipwreck missiles would not constitute a major threat.  It would require a group of at least four Kirovs to have any realistic hope of accomplishing anything significant.  On the other hand, a Kirov represents a dire threat to any non-Aegis type ship and there are a great many of those in the world!

So, what does Russia’s modernized Kirov, the Velikiy, do for the Russian navy?  Honestly, beyond prestige, not a lot.  While it’s a threat to small ships, it’s not a serious threat to the US Navy.  For the cost, Russia could have several smaller frigates/destroyers which would be much more useful.

All of this raises the obvious question, is there any need for a Kirov-like battlecruiser in the US Navy?

A Kirov-like ship would be attractive for one reason only: its heavy anti-ship missile capability.  The SS-N-19 Shipwreck is aptly named and the US Navy has nothing even remotely like it.  The rest of the ship offers nothing of value and nothing we don’t already have.  It’s a big ship that cannot stand in a fight and take damage while continuing to operate.  That’s simply too much money invested in a ship that is too fragile.

The missile, however, is well worth duplicating and would fit nicely into the US Navy’s offensive, anti-ship weapon portfolio which currently lacks a big, fast, hard hitting missile.  Of course, we currently have no ship that could launch such a missile but if we’d develop the missile, the launcher wouldn’t be all that difficult.

Having rejected a Kirov-type ship, other than its Shipwreck missile, one could easily imagine a use for a modified Kirov equipped with enough armor to stand and fight.  This would have to include armor on the order of a WWII battleship.  Such a ship, with a massive, supersonic anti-ship missile would be a formidable threat, indeed.  Unfortunately, the Navy seems to have totally rejected the very idea of armor.  Still, one can dream and hope.