The Honor of Soviet Navy - NavyField Official Site

The ship was designed by the Nevskoye Planning and Design Bureau and originally built at the in Mykolaiv, Ukrainian SSR by the Soviet Navy. It was named after the Varyag to commemorate the Varyag cruiser that sank during the Japanese-Russian War in 1904-1905. The full-load displacement is 67,500 tons, and the length of the ship is 306 meters. It is only 22 meters shorter than the US Nimitz aircraft carrier. The ship was the first aircraft carrier built by the Soviet Union. The ship's flight deck is seven floors above the water surface and the width is 73 meters, which enhance its fighter load and flight distance of the fighter, also allows heavy aircraft such as early warning aircraft to take off from Varyag. When Soviet Union collapsed, the Varyag was 67% completed. Most of the structural construction were completed, and electronic equipment were not installed. According to the agreement signed between Ukraine and Russia, the unfinished aircraft carrier ownership belongs to Ukraine.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Council of Ministers decided to build a third-generation carrier cruiser with the 1143.5 design. It is the first real carrier of the Soviet Union, and also the first two-segment flight deck and ski jump flight deck carrier in the world. The original name was Riga, and renamed to Admiral Flota Sovetskovo Soyuza Kuznetsov later, referred to in short as Admiral Kuznetsov - the commander in chief of the Soviet Navy in World War II, Nikola Grasimovich Kuznetsov. The flight deck area is 14,700 square meters and aircrafts take off with a 12 degree ski jump at the end of the bow. Comparing with the Kiev-Class Aircraft Carrier, the Kuznetsov class is not only powerful but also much more expensive.