Soviet Nuclear Supercarrier Ulyanovsk: Built in 1988, Scrapped by Ukraine in 1992
On November 25, 1988, workers at the Black Sea Shipyard in Nikolayev laid the keel of the Soviet Union's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, Ulyanovsk (Project 1143.7). Designed to displace over 73,000 tons, the ship was to be powered by four KN-3-43 reactors, feature two steam catapults and a ski jump, and carry around 70 aircraft including Su-33 fighters and Yak-44 radar planes. Construction halted in November 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved, leaving the unfinished hull in independent Ukraine. With the financing state gone and supply chains broken, Ukraine ordered the hull scrapped on February 4, 1992. The reactors had never been installed. The article traces the Soviet Navy's long debate over carriers, from earlier Kiev-class hybrids to the nuclear ambitions of Ulyanovsk, which combined American-style flight deck operations with cruiser-like missile armament.
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