The
heavy aircraft carrying cruiser Kiev served the
SovietThe Soviet Navy was the naval part of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have been instrumental in any perceived Warsaw Pact role in an all-out war with NATO when it would have to stop the naval convoys bringing reinforcements over the Atlantic to...
and
Russian naviesThe Russian Navy or VMF is the naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. The international designation of Russian naval vessels is RFS—"Russian Federation Ship"....
from 1975 to 1993. It was built from 1970 till 1975 at Chernomorski factory in
NikolayevMykolaiv , also widely known as Nikolayev , is a major city in southern Ukraine.-Name of city:There are several variations of the city's name. In Ukrainian, the city is named Микола́їв, for which the transliteration is Mykolaiv, or, more rarely, Mykolayiv...
and was the first ship of its class (
Project 1143 KrechyetThe Kiev class carriers were the first class of fixed-wing aircraft carriers built in the Soviet Union....
(
GyrfalconThe gyrfalcon or Falco rusticolus, also spelled gerfalcon, is the largest of all falcon species. The Gyrfalcon breeds on Arctic coasts and islands of North America, Europe and Asia...
) or Kiev class)
The
Kiev was laid down on July 21, 1970 and launched on 26 December 1972. She was completed and commissioned on 28 December 1975, but officially entered service only in February 1977, after completing all trials. In 1976 she was moved from the Black Sea to her destination
SeveromorskSeveromorsk is a closed town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located about north of Murmansk along the Kola Bay. This is the main administrative base of the Russian Northern Fleet. Severomorsk has the largest dry dock in the Kola Peninsula....
, as a part of the Northern Fleet. From 1977 till 1987,
Kiev undertook 10 practice voyages to the Atlantic and
Mediterranean SeaThe Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The sea is technically a part of the Atlantic Ocean, although it...
. In March 1979 she undertook manoeuvres with her sistership
Minsk on the Mediterranean. In October 1981 she was a flagship in great manoeuvres
Zapad-81Exercise Zapad were large scale military exercises carried out in the Soviet Union in 1981 and have also been carried out after the fall of communism in Russia 1999 and in Russia/Belorussia 2009.- Zapad-81 :...
on the
Baltic SeaThe Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and the...
. From December 1982 to November 1984 she underwent an overhaul and modernization in
NikolayevMykolaiv , also widely known as Nikolayev , is a major city in southern Ukraine.-Name of city:There are several variations of the city's name. In Ukrainian, the city is named Микола́їв, for which the transliteration is Mykolaiv, or, more rarely, Mykolayiv...
. From 1985, the practice of operating
Yakovlev Yak-38The Yakovlev Yak-38 was Soviet Naval Aviation's first and only operational VTOL multi-role combat aircraft.-Design and development:...
s in
STOLSTOL is an acronym for short take-off and landing, a term used to describe aircraft with very short runway requirements.The formal NATO definition is:...
mode instead of
VTOLVTOL is an abbreviation for Vertical Take-Off and Landing aircraft. See also V/STOL. This classification includes fixed-wing aircraft that can hover, take off and land vertically as well as helicopters and other aircraft with powered rotors, such as tiltrotors...
was introduced, allowing to increase aircraft payload and range, and a replacement of
Kamov Ka-25The Kamov Ka-25 was a naval helicopter, developed for the Soviet Navy in the USSR from .-Design and development:...
helicopters with
Kamov Ka-27The Kamov Ka-27 is a military helicopter developed for the Soviet Navy, and currently in service in Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, South Korea, China, Taiwan and India...
started. In 1985
Kiev went back to the Northern Fleet. From 1987 she mainly stayed in Severomorsk. In December 1989 she was moved to a reserve. After a disintegration of the USSR, the ship was taken by
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. Due to low military budget and worsening ship's condition, she was retired on 30 June 1993. As the building yard was located in the newly independent
UkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
, she could not be serviced.
In 1996 she was sold to a
ChineseThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
company, and has been part of the military theme park in
Tianjin' is the sixth largest city of the People's Republic of China in terms of urban population. Administratively it is one of the four municipalities that have provincial-level status, reporting directly to the central government...
since 1 May 2004.
See also
External links