Kiev-Class: The Russian Aircraft Carrier Built to Sink U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers

Not big enough to be an aircraft carrier and heavier than a cruiser, the Russian Kiev-class carrier was a hybrid ship meant to answer the U.S. Navy’s growth of submarine-launched nuclear missiles during the Cold War.

This was the second attempt by the Soviet navy to build some kind of aircraft carrier to challenge advances in American submarine and flat-top development. The four Kiev-class ships never succeeded. They did not have sufficient air power or offensive capability and it showed...