Last week the vessel was put in dry dock at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region, where the workers will start an extensive renovation and rearmament, Sevmash’ website reads.
According General Director of Severnoe Design Bureu Vladimir Spiridopulo,the work will significantly upgrade the ship’s capabilities and extend its operational life. The work also will enable the shipyard to retain experienced personnel who refurbished the aircraft carrier “Vikramaditya” for the Indian Navy.
“This will be a complete overhaul of the ship, to make it almost new. She has a good hull. But everything else, except for the hull and the nuclear power plant will be new,” Spiridupulo said to TASS, adding that the refurbishment will allow the Nakhimov to serve another 30 to 40 years.
“Admiral Nakhimov” is one of two surviving vessels of the Soviet-era Kirov class – nuclear-powered battlecruisers that are the largest surface warships in the world, other than aircraft carriers. The only Kirov to see constant service since construction has been “Pyotr Veliky”.
“Admiral Nakhimov” went into service in the Northern Fleet 1988, but has been mothballed at Sevmash since 1999. Over the years, there has been much talk about modernization of Nakhimov and the other vessels of the Kirov class, but in September 2012 it was decided that “Admiral Ushakov” and “Admiral Lazarev” were considered to be beyond repair, and will be scrapped. The cost of rebuilding and modernizing “Admiral Nakhimov” was then estimated to some RUB 50 billion (€1.24 billion at that time), or roughly the price of the two French-built Mistral class warships ordered by Russia.
