The U.S. 600 Ship Navy - Mid 90's (Cold War Not Ending)

[Scott Kenny]

Personally, I’d love the see an extensive overhaul of the Kiev-class in the same vein as Vikramaditya (or more realistically, Project 1143.42) just because I personally love the look of the Vikramaditya but I’m skeptical if the Soviets would invest in converting them.

Unlikely to happen, the Bosporus Treaty (Treaty of Montraeux?) disallows aircraft carriers from transiting the straits. It does allow "aircraft carrying cruisers", so the Soviet carriers got some heavy antiship missile batteries to have a fig leaf towards being cruisers.

 

[Yellow Palace]

Unlikely to happen, the Bosporus Treaty (Treaty of Montraeux?) disallows aircraft carriers from transiting the straits. It does allow "aircraft carrying cruisers", so the Soviet carriers got some heavy antiship missile batteries to have a fig leaf towards being cruisers.

Did they have any aviation cruisers in the Black Sea fleet? The Montreux Convention has an exception for delivery voyages, IIRC.

The missiles weren't just a legal fiddle, though. Doctrinally, they were seen as cruisers with reusable long-range SAMs. The heavy anti-ship missiles were the main strike warfare capability.

 

[Scott Kenny]

Did they have any aviation cruisers in the Black Sea fleet? The Montreux Convention has an exception for delivery voyages, IIRC.

Well, later on one of the beasts was ported in Crimea.

And since the Black Sea was one of two warm-water ports the Soviets had access to (the other being up around the Baltic Sea, IIRC), much of their fleet was based there.

The missiles weren't just a legal fiddle, though. Doctrinally, they were seen as cruisers with reusable long-range SAMs. The heavy anti-ship missiles were the main strike warfare capability.

Pretty sure the USN sees their carriers as ships with reusable long range missiles as well.

But my point was that the heavy antiship missiles give the ship itself a significant strike capability, when "aircraft carriers" don't have a direct attack capability.

I'd bet that the Turks would not want to allow the Indian carrier back through the Bosporus now that the AShMs are gone.