Kommersant - Russia's Daily Online said:Russia and Ukraine will sell a missile cruiser constructed in time of the former Soviet Union, Interfax-Ukraine reported.
Construction of Admiral Lobov cruiser of Project 1164 was launched in 1984 at Nikolaev shipyard but stalled at the final stage (the 90-percent readiness) in late 1980s due to the sharp reduction in military costs.
The cruiser was renamed to Ukraina after 1992. The government of Ukraine first intended to complete construction to have the cruiser in its own Navy but thought better afterwards.
Today’s plans are that Russia and Ukraine will jointly complete construction, as most of the cruiser’s equipment is produced in Russia, and look for a foreign buyer – India or China most probably.
Ukraina’s full displacement is 11,500 tons, its length is 186.4 meters, the beam is 20.8 meters, the draft – 8.4 meters. It has the sailing rate of 32 knots and cruising endurance of 7,400 miles. The cruisers of Project 1164 are armed with Bazalt or Vulkan heavy missiles. Russia has three similar cruisers in the fleet.
The Slava class cruisers are very powerful surface combatants, both in anti-surface and in anti-air warfare. It will be very interesting to see who bids on this vessel. My guess is that Russia and the Ukraine would not go to the expense of completing her without a seller already in hand.
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