Putin Spent Billions and Over 2 Decades Upgrading a Nuclear Battlecruiser: Kirov-Class Is Finally at Sea and It Might Already Be Obsolete Like a Battleship

Putin Spent Billions and Over 2 Decades Upgrading a Nuclear Battlecruiser: Kirov-Class Is Finally at Sea and It Might Already Be Obsolete Like a Battleship

Russia’s Admiral Nakhimov—the massive Kirov-class nuclear-powered battlecruiser originally designed to hunt American aircraft carriers during the Cold War—is finally undergoing sea trials after a stunning 26-year-long absence from the fleet. The 28,000-ton, 827-foot warship was commissioned in 1988 and went into dry dock in 1999, only to languish there for more than a quarter-century while Russia struggled to fund its modernization through repea…