Nuclear-powered battlecruiser returns to Severomorsk for first time in 27 years
The refurbished Soviet-era giant Admiral Nakhimov is set to become the world's most heavily armed surface warship, serving as the flagship of Russia's Northern Fleet.
The battlecruiser was first visible in satellite imagery in Kola Bay on 25 June, as cloud cover obscured the area the previous day. The same day, residents of Severomorsk began posting photographs of the giant warship on social media.
Admiral Nakhimov was anchored outside the Northern Fleet's main naval base, where shuttle boats could be seen transporting personnel between the ship and the shore. A giant Russian tricolour, likely the largest ever flown aboard a Russian Navy warship, was hoisted from the vessel's stern.
No official flag-raising ceremony has yet taken place, however, as the battlecruiser remains in the final stage of sea trials following years of repairs and extensive modernisation.
The 251-metre-long vessel departed its berth at the Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk in late May and sailed into the White Sea on 31 May for the first round of sea trials this year.
The nuclear-powered battlecruiser is expected to operate primarily in the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea and the Arctic, where one of the Northern Fleet's core missions is to protect the "bastion" for Russia's ballistic missile submarines.
Following its modernisation, Admiral Nakhimov carries one of the world's largest missile arsenals on a surface warship, including 80 vertical launch cells for Kalibr, P-800 Oniks and Tsirkon cruise missiles, together with 96 launchers for S-400-derived long-range surface-to-air missiles.
Before returning to operational service, Admiral Nakhimov is expected to conduct test launches of several missile systems in the Barents Sea as part of its final sea trials. The Northern Fleet's main weapon storage is located in Okolnaya Bay, across the waters from Severomorsk.
The Soviet-built warship last operated with the Northern Fleet in 1997. After spending two years laid up in Severomorsk, north of Murmansk, she was towed to Severodvinsk in 1999 for what was initially expected to be a relatively straightforward overhaul.
Instead, the project evolved into one of the most ambitious naval modernisation programmes undertaken by Russia. Once commissioned, Admiral Nakhimov is expected to become the Northern Fleet's most powerful surface combatant, equipped with an extensive arsenal of missiles, rockets, torpedoes and naval guns unmatched elsewhere in the Russian Navy.
Russia's Ministry of Defence has previously stated that the ship will be armed with the Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile. If launched from Russia's sector of the Barents Sea, the missile could fly over land and strike maritime targets in the Norwegian Sea, giving NATO naval forces very little warning time.
The battlecruiser was originally scheduled to return to service in 2018, but the programme suffered years of delays. Sea trials in the White Sea were repeatedly postponed, while revised commissioning targets slipped from 2023 to autumn 2024 and beyond.
As part of the modernisation, the fuel assemblies in the ship's two nuclear reactors were replaced. Reactor No. 1 was brought online in late December 2024, followed by Reactor No. 2 in early February 2025.
Although the reactors received new uranium fuel and parts of their cooling systems were refurbished, their basic pressurised water reactor design remains unchanged from the mid-1980s, when the vessel was originally built. Together, the two reactors produce 300 MW of thermal power, driving steam turbines that generate approximately 140,000 horsepower.
Admiral Nakhimov is expected to replace Pyotr Velikiy, her sister ship, as the flagship ofS Russia's Northern Fleet. Pyotr Velikiy has been laid up at a pier in Severomorsk since autumn 2022 and, as previously reported by the Barents Observer, is expected to be decommissioned and scrapped.
