These ships were designed to hunt US Navy subs carrying Regulus cruise missiles (and later Polaris SLBMs) in the Mediterranean. Originally twelve were planned, this was later trimmed to three and in the end, only two were built. The design was a contemporary to the Italian Andrea Doria class, with a cruiser hull forward broadening aft into a flight deck for ASW helicopters. The design was approved in 1959; they were the largest ships built in Russia since the Bolshevik revolution. Both ships were homeported at Sevastopol their whole lives.

The main ASW armament was the SUW-N-1 twin launcher, firing the nuclear-tipped FRAS rocket. The Moskvas had a respectable SAM armament, but only two twin 57mm guns (arranged asymmetrically). After the US Navy retired Regulus and upgraded to longer-ranged variants of Polaris, the ships lost their main mission and instead were used as flagships for Black Sea fleet units venturing into the Mediterranean.

The design suffered flaws; the huge “Moose Jaw” sonar dome produced a great deal of drag and caused the ships to trim by the bows, which increased with speed. For this reason, ASW torpedo tubes originally installed in the side embrasures were removed as they were constantly swamped by the bow waves. The propulsion plant was unsatisfactory, suffering a major fire on 2 February 1975 (see below). Amazingly, the Soviets copied the failed design on the later Kiev class with similar difficulties resulting.

By the late 1980s neither ship rarely left the Black Sea. In 1991 SUW-N-1 was deactivated, and both ships were deactivated. Leningrad was stripped of all weapons shortly after, and Moskva reduced to a pierside flagship for her final years.

Original Author: Jason W. Henson