This article was originally published in the September 2009 issue of "Weapons" magazine, and was reprinted with the second content improvement, editing, and supplementing some illustrations to share with colleagues. Personally, I think that "Weapons" is a professional and objective military magazine, and it is recommended to subscribe continuously to enrich one's military and political knowledge. Although the articles that are digitally saved and reprinted at the same time as the magazines at home have been published for many years, they are enough to provide ordinary netizens with professional military basic knowledge, and second, they want readers to examine things and opinions from another unique perspective.
At the end of February 2009, the government of Kamchatka in Russia's Far East reported to the local population that a buyer had been found for an abandoned floating nuclear power plant parked at the port of Maga, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant. The buyer is said to be from an Asian country. Local officials and people celebrated one after another, and there was a great smell of "asking the plague gentleman what he wanted, and the paper boat was burning brightly". They have been with this rotten ship with a "nuclear heart" for more than a decade, and they worry every day that it may have a nuclear accident like Chernobyl's.
The abandoned offshore floating nuclear power plant "Ural" moored in the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, the "Ural" reconnaissance ship is rusty throughout, indicating that it has been neglected for many years
This floating nuclear power plant is actually the "remnant" of the Soviet Union's nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and its fate illustrates a living Soviet-style tragedy.
The number one is a "miser"
In 1965, the United States battle group headed by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "Enterprise" completed its round-the-world voyage in only 65 days without midway supplies, demonstrating the extraordinary technological superiority of nuclear-powered ships. The Soviet Navy, which suffered the loss of aircraft carriers in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, decided that we must have such warships as well. ”
In the 60~70s of the 20th century, Soviet Navy Commander Gorshkov and Defense Minister Grechko repeatedly raised the issue of building "nuclear-powered aircraft-carrying cruisers" (that is, nuclear-powered aircraft carriers) at meetings of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU, emphasizing the importance of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier battle groups to the security of the entire Soviet Union.
At the Politburo meeting on April 11, 1969, Gorshkov said in a very stern tone: "Without nuclear-carrying aircraft, there would be no reliable ocean-going accompanying protection, no safe launch of ballistic missile nuclear submarines hanging deep in the ocean, and no nuclear strike system that the Soviet state could trust." In other words, the "nuclear triad" strike system, painstakingly managed by the Soviet Union, will turn into a "paper tiger" due to the absence of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers.
Admiral of the Soviet Union Gorshkov: The one who challenged the US Navy.
However, building a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is not easy to say. At that time, the Soviet Union lacked experience in building nuclear-powered surface ships and large aircraft carriers, and the ship's equipment was large and cumbersome, and there were no suitable conventional take-off and landing fighters. What's more, Leonid Brezhnev, the head of the Soviet Union and chairman of the Supreme Soviet, was by no means a "fanatical arms supporter" as the outside world imagined, and he was terrified of any project that cost too much money, and in many cases military generals and Politburo comrades often needed to scare him in order to get money.
According to the memoirs written by the Minister of Shipbuilding Industry of the Soviet Union, Bhutoma, "Set sail! The Sea records that when the life and death of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier project was at stake, Kosygin, chairman of the Council of Ministers, sided with the Navy. At a meeting of the Politburo in June 1972, when Gorshkov and Grechko again came up with a "proposal for a nuclear-based aircraft-carrying ship," Kosygin wasted no time in interjecting: "I agree with Andrei Antonovich's (Gretchko's) proposal to build a nuclear-based aircraft ship on the basis of various favorable conditions at home and abroad, and to form a large shipbuilding base, which is a great contribution to the economic construction of the Soviet state." ”
Brezhnev asked Gorshkov in passing: "How much does it cost to buy a nuclear-based aircraft ship that you want?" ”
Gorshkov replied: "According to the calculations of domestic experts, about 1.5 billion rubles ......"
Before Gorshkov's words fell, Brezhnev impatiently interrupted him and said: "1.5 billion rubles, too much!" ”
Gorshkov was about to argue further, but Kosygin motioned for him to leave first, and then leaned over and explained to Brezhnev: "I beg your pardon, I would like to remind you that in the last 3 years, the USSR has received $10 billion a year through the export of oil, gold and furs!" In addition, Arab countries are purchasing large quantities of weapons from the continent and generate an additional income of $9.5 billion a year. In this way, building a nuclear carrier is as easy as buying a children's bicycle. ”
But Brezhnev did not agree with this: "No, the construction of nuclear-based aircraft ships must be postponed. ”
But Kosygin refused to admit defeat, he played the most important trump card in his hand: "If we want to resist inflation, we must do it as soon as possible!" You know, now residents have 800~90 billion rubles in their hands, which is equivalent to more than 100 billion dollars at the official exchange rate, which is almost equal to the total annual budgets of countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark. In addition, the savings of mainland residents have shown an explosive growth trend every year, and the common people do not trust the banks very much, so they hold the cash in their hands and press it to the bottom of the box. In order to ensure the normal circulation of 50 and 100 rubles, the printing press had to turn non-stop. The most worrying thing is that these boxes of money will become beasts out of the cage if they are not careful, forming a huge disaster. There is nothing that can be done about jewellery sales and imported consumer goods to remove the potential threat of these huge sums of money, but to seek something more weighty. This heavyweight product is the construction of nuclear aircraft.
After hearing this, Brezhnev said: "Well, I'm convinced of you!" The Ministry of Defense Industry, the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry, and the Ministry of Aviation Industry were instructed to find out which factory it was cheaper to build such ships, and to make them as low as possible. I'll give you a year, is that enough?"
The long-lost "birth permit"
As soon as Brezhnev's golden mouth opened, the Soviet Navy naturally rejoiced. Gorshkov immediately entrusted the 17th Central Design Bureau of Leningrad (now the Neva Design Bureau) with coming up with a plan as soon as possible. In February 1973, the 41-year-old engineer Alexander Morin came up with the "Project 1160" plan, which was the first complete design of a nuclear-powered surface warship in the Soviet Union. The appearance of the "Project 1160" almost completely imitates the conventionally powered aircraft carrier "Kitty Hawk", but it is larger in size, with a full load displacement of 85,000 tons, and a mixed arrangement of nuclear reactors and steam turbines (apparently the Soviet Union is not sure about its own marine nuclear power system). In addition, "Project 1160" is armed with anti-ship missiles. Due to the limited knowledge of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and the lack of operational experience, the number of crew members is large.
Side and top view of Project 1160
However, the "1160 Project" still encountered great resistance at the top. Needless to say, Brezhnev, who had an attitude of riding on the wall, even Minister of Defense Industry Ustinov, who was very technologically savvy in the Politburo, resolutely opposed it, citing that "the technology is immature, the use is not safe, the construction is inconvenient, and the bottomless pit is thrown." "This seriously affected the attitude of other members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. In addition, when the "Project 1160" was catching up with the Soviet Navy's efforts to develop the "Project 1143" Kiev-class aircraft carriers equipped with vertical take-off and landing aircraft, many people (especially the "Emperor's Daughter" Strategic Rocket Force and Army Generals) made small reports to the central government: accusing the Navy of being greedy for perfection and blindly comparing itself with the US Navy. As a result, Project 1160 was frozen at the end of 1973.
Naval Commander Gorshkov, known as the "Red Mahan," did not give up, he constantly lobbied the Central Committee of the CPSU, and used the example of the US aircraft carrier group in 1975 that stayed off the coast of South Vietnam for two months and picked up nearly 150,000 South Vietnamese personnel to strive for the relaunch of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. In order to prove that the Soviet shipbuilding industry was gradually maturing in the construction of large military ships, Gorshkov spent two months in 1975 visiting shipyards in the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea to learn about the construction of Moskva-class and Kiev-class conventionally powered aircraft carriers, and sent detailed information to the Politburo.
After Gorshkov's unremitting efforts, coupled with the assistance of Grechko, Kosygin and others, on August 11, 1975, the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU finally approved the launch of the "large special power aircraft-carrying cruiser" project. Brezhnev specifically cared for the Ministry of the Navy and the shipbuilding industry to "make sure to control the budget."
Side and top view of "Project 1153".
The new scheme is still being designed by the 17th Central Design Bureau. Due to the experience of the "1160 Project", the chief designers of the project, I. F. Zhukov and V. F. Anikiev, were careful to use most of the existing technology and equipment in the design of the new plan, and even the full load displacement was reduced from the original 85,000 tons to less than 70,000 tons. With the cooperation of 650 units of 13 ministries and commissions, in August 1976, the 17th Central Design Bureau officially came up with the "1153 Project" plan, which was approved by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Military Industrial Commission under the Council of Ministers, and in November of the same year, the tactical and technical task book of the "1153 Project" was officially issued. According to the plan, the Navy will receive two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers by 1985, the first of which will be named "Soviet", the second ship to bear the name of the Soviet state.
Less than a month after the letter of assignment was issued, Ustinov raised the question of where the "Project 1153" should be built in the Politburo. In the past, this is completely "impossible", because only the Black Sea Shipyard in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, has two of the largest inclined dry docks in the Soviet Union (of which Dock 0 is equipped with two large lifting cranes, each capable of loading 900-ton castings), and only the tugboats there can tow the hull of an aircraft carrier of more than 50,000 tons to the sea or to the port. The Black Sea Plant also has many unique skills, and a large number of high-level experts have more than 1,000 technical patents, and these superb shipbuilding skills are beyond the mastery of outsiders.
But Ustinov impressed Brezhnev with such reasons as "the production task of the Black Sea shipyard is full, and Turkey may set limits on the passage of nuclear-powered aircraft-carrying ships." "Project 1153" was forcibly assigned to the Baltic Shipyard in Leningrad, but the plant had neither any experience in building aircraft carriers nor a sufficiently large dry dock. On May 9, 1978 (the day of the anti-fascist victory), the Baltic Shipyard began cutting the first steel plate of the lead ship of Project 1153 "Soviet". Curiously, not a single high-ranking official of the CPSU attended the groundbreaking ceremony, and the atmosphere was not as warm as the Victory Day celebrations outside the plant.
Ustinov (left), the backbone of the Soviet anti-aircraft carrier faction
Outstanding strike resistance
According to the design, the "1153 Project" is 265 meters long, 30.5 meters wide, 10 meters draft, and has a full load displacement of 68,000 tons. It uses two KN-3 pressurized water-cooled reactors with a power of 300 MW; It is also equipped with two GT3-688 turbines, each with a power of 36.7 MW. The ship was initially planned to have 4-axis propulsion, which was later reduced to 3 axles and a maximum speed of 30 knots. Slightly behind the starboard side, there are aircraft lifts, another aircraft lift (both with a lifting capacity of 40 tons) near the central axis in front, and a large number of anti-aircraft missiles and anti-submarine weapons are deployed at the four corners of the flight deck. For the convenient transportation of ammunition from the ship's ammunition depot to the flight deck, 6 ammunition elevators are equipped. The electronic equipment includes the "Sky Sentinel" phased array radar and the "Plate Rudder" three-coordinate air/sea search radar, as well as the corresponding guidance radar for shipborne weapons.
Because the external dimensions and hull volume of the "1153 Project" far exceed those of the early Moskva-class and Kiev-class aircraft carriers, the probability of being discovered and attacked is greatly increased, so strengthening the anti-strike capability has become the first consideration of the designers. According to the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry's "1153 Project" lofting data and order schedule, the structure above the waterline of the new aircraft carrier's hull must be able to resist the attack of "Harpoon" class anti-ship missiles, and the underwater part must be protected against MK48 torpedoes.
As a result, the hull of Project 1153 was built of high-strength steel, the freeboard structure was protected by armor, and the composite structure (which is still a mystery today) was used as an internal protective layer. High-strength steel with a yield limit of 588 megaN/m2 is used as the main material for structural protection to ensure that the hull has the corresponding strength. In order to ensure that all critical control equipment can survive in the event of a single missile, the "1153 Project" uses a distributed combat system to prevent a tragedy similar to the 1982 British "Sheffielder" that was destroyed with one blow.
The British destroyer "Sheffieldel" was sunk in the Falklands War.
The vital parts of the ship, such as the combat command center, communication cabin, computer cabin, ammunition depot, etc., are covered with light composite armor materials, and heavy armor is specially installed in the two major parts of the nuclear power plant and the nuclear fuel tank. This special composite protective armor is 400 mm thick and consists of steel-fiberglass-steel, which is said to be at least as protective as steel armor 1500 mm thick. Vibration isolation measures are taken between the main noise source equipment, including the power plant, and the propeller uses a low-noise five-blade propeller with a sound-absorbing coating on the nose of the bulbous nose, while using Prary/Musk bubble technology to shield itself from noise.
The "1153 Project" also adopts the first underwater structure fire protection device in the Soviet Union, and adopts an advanced fire and explosion prevention system, with an underwater protection depth of 4.5~5.0 meters on the side of the ship. The whole ship is divided into 42 watertight compartments by 50 horizontal walls, which can ensure that any adjacent 12 cabins will not sink due to flooding, and even 1/3 of the cabins (and connected cabins) are flooded, and the whole ship can still float on the water. As a precaution, the ship is also equipped with nearly 10 pumping machines, each of which can pump more than 300 tons of water per hour, which can minimize the water intake of the ship.
Model of the aircraft carrier "Project 1153".
In order to conform to the operational environment of the "big nuclear war" at that time, all cabins were designed with a "closed" protection system. The system consists of a group of adjacent cabins, with strict sound insulation measures, which can be individually sealed, input filtered air and maintain a certain overpressure to prevent external polluted air from leaking through the gaps in doors and holes. Each compartment and important parts are equipped with a variety of fire-fighting equipment to eliminate fire hazards. The ship also has a special damage control department. All these protective measures have given the "1153 Project" a strong ability to control damage.
It is worth mentioning that the 17th Central Design Bureau, in the design process, fully absorbed the useful experience of its American and European counterparts, giving full consideration to habitability, which had previously been rarely considered. Prior to this, large Soviet surface ships were designed with only ship-based armament in mind. Due to the increased displacement and sufficient redundancy of the ship, there are more than 1,500 rooms for various purposes in the "Project 1153" ship. There are 3 types of standards for crew quarters alone: officer cabins for 1 person, officer cabins for 2 people and sailor cabins for 6~13 people. These rooms completely exceeded the accommodation needs of the rated crew (1900 people).
In addition, there is a 36-square-meter swimming pool and nearly 10 Finnish-style steam baths with baths. There is also a sailor's club for 200 people to rest, a library that can accommodate 100 people at the same time, and two luxurious officers' lounges for officers to rest have a billiard room and a piano. The ship also has 2 laundry rooms, 5 canteens, a two-story hospital, 1 TV drama production center, and even a small printing house. Such superior living conditions made the representatives of the Soviet Navy who supervised the construction envious of it, and nicknamed it a "hotel-type aircraft-carrying cruiser".
"Fire Hedgehog of the Sea"
The flight deck of "Project 1153" is based on the design of the American aircraft carrier, which is a full-pass straight type, and is divided into two parts: the beveled deck and the bow deck. A steam catapult was installed on each of these decks. The rear of the beveled deck is a landing area with 4 barrages. The ship can carry 50 aircraft of various types, usually 34 fixed-wing aircraft and 16 helicopters, including MiG-23K fighters, Su-25K attack trainers and Ka-25 anti-submarine helicopters. The Yakovlev Design Bureau wanted to use the Yak-141 supersonic vertical take-off and landing fighter it developed, and modified the design for this purpose, but abandoned it because of the large changes.
Detail of the "Project 1153" model. As can be seen from the figure, the ship's selected carrier-based aircraft are carrier-based modifications of the MiG-23 and Su-25, and its island is also equipped with phased array radar antennas
Side view of the MiG-23K carrier-based fighter
Considering that there is a gap between the performance of carrier-based aircraft and the United States, the "1153 Project" itself is equipped with a large number of weapons, and as a result, it has become a "fire hedgehog at sea". The front flight deck is equipped with a 12-cell fixed elevation tandem launcher with an elevation angle of 50 °, in which 12 P-700 "Granite" supersonic anti-ship missiles are housed. The missile is loaded with a launcher at the base with a special loader, and the ship does not have the ability to reload. The missile can be equipped with both conventional and nuclear warheads, which weigh 750 kg and have a nuclear warhead of 350,000 tons of TNT equivalent.
The missile adopts a composite guidance system of "active radar homing + inertial guidance + mid-course command correction". The ship is equipped with special data transmission equipment, which obtains target position data from aircraft or satellite systems, corrects it, and inputs it into the missile guidance system, and then launches the missile. The missile can also be guided by the Ka-25 helicopter's Osminog radar during flight. The missile can not only attack an over-the-horizon target at a distance of 500 km, but also at a target within 20 km, making up for the weakness of not having large-caliber naval guns when encountering the approach of enemy ships.
P-700“花岗岩”超音速反舰导弹
In terms of air defense, the hull is equipped with six 8-cell "Blade" medium- and short-range ship-to-air missile vertical launch systems in each of the four directions. The "Blade" system was later adopted by the Soviet Army and evolved into the land-based "Daur"-M1 mobile anti-aircraft missile system, which is quite popular in the international market today, while the previous Soviet ship-to-air missile systems were modified from land-based types. The "Blade" system relies on the phased array radar on the island to track and lock onto targets, and can decide which target to hit first and how many missiles need to be launched. Project 1153 also deployed a large number of AK-630 30mm 6-barreled fully automatic rapid-fire guns to deal with sea-skimming anti-ship missiles.
俄制海军的近防武器标配—AK-630近防炮.
In terms of anti-submarine, in addition to relying on the Ka-25, several RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers are equipped. The RBU-6000 weighs 10.7 tons and has 10 launch tubes, 5 arranged in an arc on each side. The whole system tracking, aiming, and loading are fully automatic, and the system reaction time is 15 seconds. The RGB-600 rocket adopts an advanced twin-engine variable speed scheme to ensure that it can attack underwater targets along the best trajectory in the maximum range and short flight time, but it is difficult for the weapon to intercept submarine-launched high-speed torpedoes. The maximum effective range of the rocket is 6000 meters.
Ka-25RT "Hormone" carrier-based helicopter
RBU-6000反潜火箭发射器
The Soviet medium-sized aircraft carrier was originally intended to be equipped with a Yak-44 early warning aircraft similar to the American-made E-2C "Hawkeye", but it failed to break through due to technical difficulties and finally died.
Yak-44 carrier-based early warning aircraft conducting take-off and landing tests
A full-scale model of the Yak-44 AWACS aircraft was tested for suitability on the USS Kuznetsov aircraft carrier of the Soviet Navy
The unpopular "Nuclear Plague God"
In the first few years, the first ship of Project 1153, the Soviet, progressed fairly smoothly. In June 1981, two KN-3 reactors were successfully installed on the hull, and by the end of 1982, the entire hull was about 50% complete. However, with the successive resignations of the "pro-aircraft carrier faction" such as Grechko, Butoma, and Kosygin, and the failure of the development of the MiG-23K carrier-based aircraft, problems arose in the design of the steam catapult, and the "1153 Project" was difficult to continue.
After the death of Brezhnev in 1982, the political and economic situation of the Soviet Union was turbulent, especially in 1979~1982 for four consecutive years of poor agricultural harvest, forcing the Soviet Union to lower its profile and seek food aid from the United States. In order to survive the "difficult 1983" (in the words of Yuri Andropov, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet), the "1153 Project", which can be called the "gold-swallowing beast", had to be stopped in February of that year.
Due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, many large military-industrial projects of the Soviet army were aborted. The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier "Ulyanovsk" in the picture is an example.
Navy Commander Gorshkov, who was already in his prime, tried his best to finally get the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet to abandon the plan to dismantle the "Soviet" and instead redesign the hull below the waterline and use its hull to build a giant nuclear-powered reconnaissance ship. At that time, most of the Soviet army's intelligence-gathering vessels were converted from trawlers, and the largest number was a marine-class reconnaissance ship with a displacement of 1,000 tons, and a total of more than 20 ships were built. However, due to range limitations, these ships could not independently complete long-range reconnaissance missions, and nuclear-powered reconnaissance ships just helped the Soviet Union strengthen intelligence reconnaissance work in NATO countries.
The new program, codenamed "Project 1194", was again entrusted to the 17th Central Design Bureau, and the chief designer was the "Hero of Socialist Labor" S. N. Alkharov. Compared with the "1153 Project", the size of the "1194 Project" has been greatly reduced, with a total length of 265 meters, a width of 30 meters, and a standard displacement of 35,000 tons and a full load displacement of 41,000 tons. Despite this, it is also the largest tonnage intelligence ship in history, and is nicknamed the "aircraft carrier reconnaissance ship".
Side and top view of "Project 1194".
The two nuclear reactors on board were retained, but the propulsion shafts were reduced to two, the maximum speed was only 25 knots, and the sea self-sustaining power was 6 months. The crew is 923 people, including 460 officers and 463 soldiers. The ship is also equipped with self-defense weapons, mainly six AK-100 100 mm naval guns, four sets of "needle" anti-aircraft missile launchers, four 12.7 mm double-barreled machine guns and one Ka-32 helicopter, which can directly confront the enemy's small and medium-sized ships and helicopters. After the ship entered service, it was named "Ural".
The Ka-32 is a civilian helicopter modified from the military Ka-27 helicopter.
Due to its large hull, the "Ural" can accommodate a variety of electronic reconnaissance equipment, can listen to all US intercontinental missiles, radio signals from strategic air force airfields, and microwave signals sent back by most US reconnaissance and communications satellites, and can also be used as a maritime combat command and early warning center to directly transmit strategic intelligence to Soviet military and political leaders. The ship is equipped with the "Polyp" reconnaissance system, which is composed of dozens of EC-1046 computers, which mainly carry out intelligence analysis and reconnaissance work, and can cruise for a long time in the coastal waters of the United States without refueling to carry out close reconnaissance. This poses a serious threat to the security of the United States.
This reconnaissance ship has always been the most mysterious ship of the Soviet Navy, and all its circumstances are kept in strict secrecy. Because the U.S. military has not received detailed information on its structure, performance, etc., it has become one of the most headache for the U.S. government's secret Soviet reconnaissance vessels.
In 1988, the "Ural" was completed, and sea trials in the Baltic Sea began. Gorbachev, then general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, personally visited the inspection and spoke highly of it. It entered service with the Pacific Fleet on December 30, 1988 with the port number "SSV-33", and the Pacific Fleet held a grand ceremony for it.
"Ural" is the flagship of the 38th reconnaissance detachment of the Pacific Fleet, which also has 8 reconnaissance ships of different types. Subsequently, the "aircraft carrier reconnaissance ship" carried out a 59-day reconnaissance mission in the Pacific waters, listening to the communications and intelligence of the US Seventh Fleet and the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force. The Soviet Navy sent a nuclear submarine to escort it.
The hapless "Ural" was born at an ill-timed time, and soon after its official commissioning, it caught up with the turbulent period before the collapse of the USSR. At the same time, there are some irreparable quality defects in the construction process of the "Ural", the hidden danger of failure of its nuclear reactor cooling system has never been completely solved, the ship's computer reconnaissance system often fails, and in addition, the huge hull and complex equipment make it difficult to maintain in the Far East, where technical conditions are insufficient......
In 1990, a fire broke out on board the "Ural" due to a seaman throwing cigarette butts, the stern boiler was damaged, and almost all the ship's cables were burned out. In 1991 there was another fire. Since then, the power system of the "Ural" has been unusable, and it has to lie on its stomach in the cold Magadan military port and slowly rust. After that, much of the equipment began to deteriorate, and the Ural, which had been a great headache for the Americans, quickly fell into disembrance and did not go to sea again for several years.
In 2001, the Russian Navy reached an agreement with the government of Kamchatka in the Far East to turn the "Ural" into an offshore floating nuclear power plant, using its reactors to supply electricity to the Arctic region. However, this cooperation is constantly problematic. First of all, the KN-3 reactor can only use the original filled marine nuclear fuel, and there is no place to replenish it after it is used up; Secondly, in 2003, the reactor's isolation layer ruptured, and the residents of the Far East insisted that the "plague god" be removed.
According to Kommersant, the relevant departments of the Russian Navy have reached an agreement with a company of a certain Asian country to follow the disposal model of the Soviet nuclear submarine and auction it off at the price of scrap steel after dismantling the nuclear reactor. It seems that this behemoth, which once made the Russians proud, will be retired from the stage of history forever.