Chapter 255 Black Sea Shipyard

Black Sea coast, suburb of Nikolayev, Nikolayev Shipyard.

As the largest shipyard in the Soviet Union, the Nikolayev Shipyard has unique advantages. Compared with St. Petersburg, it is not open, which is conducive to confidentiality. The climate in the Black Sea region is relatively pleasant. Even in the coldest January, the temperature will not drop below zero. It's just that the cold wind blowing from the north is a bit strong.

Since the first generation of Moscow-class helicopter carriers was built here, the Nikolayev Shipyard has accumulated rich experience in the manufacture of large warships. Now, with the construction of the second generation of 1143-type anti-submarine cruisers, the Nikolayev Shipyard has entered its most glorious era.

On July 21, 1970, the construction of the No. 1 ship "Kiev" began. On December 26, 1972, the "Kiev" was launched. On the same day, the Black Sea Shipyard began to build the No. 2 ship of the same class - the "Minsk".

In 1975, the Kiev began sea trials, and after the Minsk was launched in 1975, it was supposed to complete sea trials in 1977 and enter service in 1978.

But now, the situation has changed a lot. Due to the war in the Far East, the Minsk was put on the slipway again and underwent an operation when the sea trial was almost over.

Feeling the cold wind from the north, Andrei, who had rushed over from Moscow, stood on the slipway of the Black Sea Shipyard with Admiral Gorshkov and others.

It was already 1978, just after New Year's Day, and Andrei came here before he was about to take up his post in the Far Eastern Military Region.

"Our experience in the Far East last year confirmed that the Yak-36 cannot meet our navy's missions of maritime escort and air supremacy." Gorshkov and Andrei are now as familiar with each other as good friends. Although there is a several dozen years difference in age between them, Gorshkov is filled with emotion when he thinks of last year's experience.

If Andrei had not intervened, the Minsk would still be mainly equipped with Yak-36, and the No. 3 and No. 4 ships would have the same configuration.

And now, it turns out that the Yak-36 is purely useless. After many discussions, the Soviet carrier-based aviation has finally ushered in a new era of ski-jump take-off fixed-wing aircraft!

The Minsk in front of him could not be modified much, so it was almost the same as the Kiev that Andre had seen, but the angled deck had begun to rise. It was just like the leap deck that Andre had made with scaffolding to fool the Americans, but this was a leap deck made of real special steel!

It looks even more out of place. The space in the bow is wasted, and the huge anti-ship missiles are still there, while on the side, like the Invincible-class, there is a raised deck extending out.

"After receiving the improvement suggestions from the Nevsky Design Bureau, we cut off a piece of the angled deck of the aircraft carrier and re-welded it to form the flight deck. At the same time, in order to withstand the impact of the landing of carrier-based aircraft, we strengthened the entire flight deck." Yuri Ivanovich Makarov, chief engineer of the Black Sea Shipyard, introduced to the senior officials who came: "This is the only way we can modify the second ship. At the same time, it also accumulates experience for the improvement of the first ship when it returns to the factory for overhaul. The upper deck of the third ship will be rebuilt."

Makarov! When Andrei saw this slightly fat chief engineer, he was a little excited. In later life, this buddy's situation was very sad. The huge Soviet Empire collapsed, and the Black Sea Shipyard became a motherless child. In later life, the entire shipyard became a shabby mess. And this Makarov, when Varyag was towed away, his heart died.

And now, the Soviet Union was still developing vigorously. In September 1976, Makarov was appointed chief engineer of the Black Sea Shipyard, and began his glorious and legendary life.

With his strong push, the Black Sea Shipyard adopted segmented construction, which greatly accelerated the construction of warships and put Soviet aircraft carrier construction on the fast track.

Now, with Andrei's involvement, the situation has changed again. The Minsk is already different from the historical one. And the third ship, when the upper part has not yet been fitted out, obviously has more opportunities to be remodeled.

Ship No. 3? Looking at Ship No. 3 on the slipway, Andre discovered that it was indeed very different. Unlike this ship, which had an angled deck that served as a takeoff deck, the bow of Ship No. 3 was upturned!

"According to the reconstruction documents of the Nevsky Design Bureau, we have made major changes to the bow of the third ship. The bow of the third ship has a leapfrog deck. At the same time, the take-off area and the landing area are separated, which will greatly facilitate deck operations." Makarov said: "This has a great impact on our construction progress, but we are now working overtime to complete the task as planned."

Compared to the No. 2 ship, which only had its angled deck modified, Andrei was obviously more interested in the No. 3 ship. So, accompanied by Marshal Gorshkov and others, Andrei boarded the No. 3 ship.

The size of the island is still very large, but all the messy things on the bow are gone. The flat deck at the rear and the leaping deck at the front give Andre the impression that it is just like the Gorshkov aircraft carrier that India got for free and then spent a huge amount of money to modify.

"This aircraft carrier is great!" Andrei said to Gorshkov, "Marshal, our navy needs an aircraft carrier like this! Since our catapults are not up to standard, we can temporarily use a ski-jump takeoff method, which is more powerful than those Yak-36s! But what is the opening underneath?"

When he stepped onto the deck, Andre discovered that there was an opening on the deck in front. Although the steel plates were tightly combined together, he could still see something underneath.

"They are our anti-ship missiles. In order to free up space on the deck, we placed the anti-ship missiles below," Makarov explained.

Or anti-ship missiles! Andre was a little speechless in his heart. The most powerful force of an aircraft carrier is its carrier-based aircraft! Every inch of space must be freed up to install carrier-based aircraft! However, the Soviet Union was holding on to anti-ship missiles, and the space in front must have been wasted! If it was opened up and used as a hangar, it could accommodate twice as many carrier-based aircraft!

However, anti-ship missiles are a tradition of the Soviet Navy. It will take time to make these people accept his views. Andrei knows that even Marshal Gorshkov next to him is a supporter of missiles.

After a few more wars, they will fully realize the powerful role of carrier-based aircraft and will definitely change their views.

"It would be best if ships No. 1 and No. 2 could be modified into ships No. 3!" Andre said with emotion.

"That would be more complicated than building a new aircraft carrier." Makarov immediately rejected Andrei's proposal.

Thinking of the Indians in later generations, Andrei knew that Makarov was right. The reason why Russia repeatedly raised the selling price was because modification was really more complicated than new construction.