That is true the requirements of russia are far diffrent than the ones of the UK and britian, the kiev is an aircraft carrying cruiser as the moskva class were helicopter cruisers the requiremt of the kievs were to keep the SSBNs safe from air threats and also provide cover for a battle group.
the big down fall with the kuznetsov class is that they dont have catapults which means the aircraft have to burn fuel heavily to take off which means it decreases this air time.
Also the kievs were fully capible of handeling Mig 29's and SU27's provided they were not fully loaded.
The biggest mistake they ever did make was cancelling the ulyonsk class carriers they would have been comparable to the nimitz class!
|