Will Russia scrap its nuclear battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy to save money for future ships?.

On August 25, 2025, Admiral Sergey Avakyants, former commander of Russia’s Pacific Fleet, gave an interview to Izvestia in which he argued that repairing the heavy nuclear-powered battlecruiser Pyotr Velikiy would be an inefficient use of state resources. He stated that the money required for such a refit should instead be allocated to constructing several new ocean-going warships equipped with modern weapons, reanimating a long-running debate inside Russia about whether to overhaul the 1998-commissioned Kirov-class or withdraw it from service.
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The Pyotr Velikiy remains one of the largest surface combatants in the world, displacing around 26,000 tons fully loaded and reaching speeds of 32 knots with its twin KN-3 nuclear reactors supported by auxiliary boilers and steam turbines. (Picture source: Russian MoD)

Avakyants stated that the very idea of heavy nuclear cruisers represents an unjustified balance between cost and effectiveness, adding that he had opposed spending on Admiral Nakhimov and that funds should not be allocated to Pyotr Velikiy. He advocated directing the same resources to several modern ocean-going ships equipped with contemporary weapons, which he argued would be more useful at sea. In illustrating his view, he invoked the wartime fates of the German-made Bismarck and Japanese-made Yamato to caution against very large, expensive surface combatants, and he highlighted the United States building numerous carriers of various sizes during the Second World War as an example of a more economical force-structure approach. We can also remember the fate of the British HMS Hood, destroyed by the Bismarck during the Battle of the Denmark Strait in May 1941, while the HMS Repulse was sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers in December 1941. The Japanese Kongō‑class ships, re‑rated as fast battleships, saw further action, but the Hiei and Kirishima were disabled and scuttled during the Guadalcanal campaign, the Kongō was sunk by a U.S. submarine in November 1944, and the Haruna suffered bomb hits and sank at her pier in July 1945, later being scrapped after the war.

For decades, battlecruisers have been widely regarded as outdated as a warship category because the core design principle of combining battleship-scale armament with reduced armor for higher speed exposed significant vulnerabilities, as demonstrated in World War I when British ships suffered heavy losses at Jutland. This tradeoff further lost its justification when fast battleships emerged in the late 1930s, offering both speed and armor protection, while naval air power and later missile technology shifted the balance of sea combat away from gun duels. After World War II, no new battlecruisers were built, and the distinction as a separate class disappeared under naval arms control treaties that treated all capital ships alike. Modern naval doctrine emphasizes missile-based offense, electronic warfare, and distributed lethality, which spreads capability across multiple vessels rather than concentrating firepower in a single large but vulnerable hull, making the traditional battlecruiser concept incompatible with current requirements. The only ships still widely referred to as battlecruisers are Russia’s Kirov-class nuclear-powered missile cruisers, although officially designated as heavy guided-missile cruisers.

The Pyotr Velikiy, a Project 1144.2 Orlan-class nuclear-powered missile cruiser, was laid down at the Baltic Shipyard in 1986 under the name Yuri Andropov. It was launched in 1989, renamed in 1992, and finally commissioned into the Russian Navy on April 18, 1998, after delays caused by economic difficulties following the Soviet collapse. Since entering service, the ship has been the flagship of the Northern Fleet and one of the largest surface combatants in operation worldwide, with a full-load displacement of approximately 25,860 tons, a length of about 250 meters, a beam of 28.5 meters, and a draft of 10.3 meters. Its propulsion system is based on two KN-3 nuclear reactors, each rated at 150 MW, supported by auxiliary boilers and two steam turbines generating a combined 140,000 shaft horsepower. This configuration gives the cruiser a maximum speed of 32 knots, unlimited range under nuclear power, and endurance limited mainly by provisions for up to 60 days. The crew is composed of about 744 personnel, including 101 officers, 130 warrant officers, 513 sailors, and an 18-person aviation detachment.

The armament of Pyotr Velikiy includes twenty P-700 Granit long-range anti-ship missiles mounted under the main deck, each capable of carrying a nuclear or conventional warhead with a range of up to 700 kilometers and employing cooperative engagement tactics. For air defense, the cruiser carries 96 S-300F and 46 S-300FM surface-to-air missiles, 128 short-range 9M330-2 missiles in Kinzhal systems, and six Kortik combined gun-missile close-in weapon systems. Additional weapons include one twin 130 mm AK-130 dual-purpose gun, six RBU-1000 and one RBU-12000 rocket launchers for anti-submarine defense, ten 533 mm torpedo tubes capable of launching torpedoes or RPK-6 Vodopad missiles, and two anti-submarine rocket-torpedo systems. The cruiser also has the capacity to carry up to three Kamov helicopters, typically the Ka-27, Ka-29, or Ka-31, for reconnaissance and anti-submarine operations. Its sensor suite includes long-range three-coordinate radars with a detection range exceeding 300 kilometers, sonar systems including hull-mounted and towed arrays, and electronic warfare equipment for surveillance, target tracking, and countermeasures.

Throughout its career, Pyotr Velikiy has taken part in major exercises and operational deployments. In 2000, during a Northern Fleet training exercise, it was the first ship to detect the sinking submarine Kursk and later served as the command vessel during the recovery operation. The cruiser participated in joint naval drills with Venezuela in 2008, in counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden in 2009, and in deployments through the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. It also took part in operations linked to Russia’s intervention in the Syrian conflict in 2016 and 2017 as part of a group with the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. In later years, the ship was awarded the Order of Nakhimov in 2012 and regularly participated in Northern Fleet exercises, including Arctic patrols and Navy Day parades, before being laid up at Severodvinsk in 2022. Open-source imagery from 2023 and 2025 showed the ship inactive at its berth, with reports noting its absence from Navy Day activities and suggesting that it retained only a caretaker crew.

Meanwhile, Admiral Nakhimov, another Project 1144 battlecruiser, reappeared at sea on August 18, 2025, when TASS reported that it had departed Severodvinsk for shipbuilder sea trials in the White Sea, to be followed by testing in the Barents Sea. The ship had been inactive since 1997 and underwent a prolonged modernization under Project 1144.2M that began formally in 1999 but progressed slowly until work accelerated in the 2010s. The overhaul included installation of up to 176 vertical launch cells for a combination of Kalibr, Oniks, and Zircon missiles, upgraded Fort-M and Pantsir-M air defense systems, and Paket-NK and Otvet anti-submarine systems, alongside improvements to sensors and electronics. The ship, originally laid down in 1983 as Kalinin, was renamed in 1992 and displaced between 26,000 and 28,000 tons when fully loaded. Its trials mark the first time in nearly three decades that it has been at sea, underscoring the scale and duration of the project.

The refit of Admiral Nakhimov has been characterized by delays and cost growth. Initially, a 2013 contract estimated 50 billion rubles and a return to service in 2018, but deadlines shifted multiple times to 2020, 2021, 2024, and finally 2026, while costs rose to around 200 billion rubles according to non-official assessments. Work milestones included moving the ship to the outfitting quay in 2020, reconnecting power and cable systems in 2021, restarting one reactor in December 2024 and the second in February 2025, and beginning dockside tests ahead of sea trials. Russian reports emphasize that its modernization fundamentally alters its combat profile with universal launchers and integrated layered defenses, making it the only Kirov-class vessel to receive a full refit. Within the class, the first two ships, Admiral Ushakov and Admiral Lazarev, were decommissioned and scrapped, while Pyotr Velikiy remains laid up and may be retired instead of modernized.

The prospect of decommissioning Pyotr Velikiy would follow the pattern set by its predecessors and leave Admiral Nakhimov as the only active unit of the class. While some argue that the ship’s size, nuclear propulsion, and heavy armament still offer strategic value for long-range strike and defense of fleet formations, others maintain that the costs outweigh the benefits compared to constructing multiple frigates or destroyers with advanced weapons. Reports in 2023 already suggested that Pyotr Velikiy might be withdrawn once Admiral Nakhimov reenters service, although Northern Fleet sources denied an immediate decision. The debate reflects broader questions about the Russian Navy’s surface fleet, balancing the symbolic role of large nuclear cruisers against the practicality of building smaller, modern vessels under current financial and industrial conditions. At present, no official decision has been announced regarding whether Pyotr Velikiy will undergo modernization or be retired from service, but the difficulties surrounding both this cruiser, the Admiral Nakhimov, and the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov indicate that Russia faces persistent problems modernizing its largest surface ships.