Actually the Kirov "Battlecruiser" is a misnomer.
I suppose it is a leftover from Reagan era "evil empire" rhetoric. If the soviet union had "Battlecruisers", the US Navy had to recomission its battleships.
The russians always called them "large missile cruisers".
They are twice as large as the largest US missile cruisers, though the last heavy gun cruisers like USS Salem are similar in size. They're just huge nuclear powered guided missile cruisers and incidentially the first really large ships to feature VLS launchers.
And they won't be out of service anytime soon. Petr Velikij is in service and Admiral Nachimov returned to service in 2005. So 2 of 4 are in service.
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