Trigunian News AgencyRaduga-class Battlecruisers Up Next in Ambitious RefitRodshyadam - There is no doubt that Trigunia’s Raduga class super-sized nuclear cruisers are charismatic fighting machines. Bristling with sensors and weaponry, and seemingly alien in design when compared to anything in other countries, they are intimidating. But the truth is that they are also very dated and only half of the ships have been able to remain in service for decades. That’s all about to change.
Only three of the 6 Raduga class ships ever built has remained in active duty since its commissioning, the TKVM-Yablonev, TKVM-Losevsky and the TKVM-Yegor.
As part of the increasingly belligerent recent plan to revitalize the rusting Trigunian Navy, ship builders have been hard at work bringing a fourth Raduga class battlecruiser, the TKVM-Ozerov of the Sea of Deliverance Flottila, back to life after it had been rusting away in storage for a decades. She’s getting overhauled and is set to be returned to the fleet in 4431.
At that time, the TKVM-Dubov, of the Green Sea Fleet, will take the place of the TKVM-Ozerov, which is slated to enter dry dock for three years where it too will get a deep overhaul and refitting just like its sister ship. Last, the TKVM-Volkov of the Anantonese Fleet will receive these updates. After these three ships have been fitted with the new equipment, the three cruisers in active duty will receive these updates. Less work is required for these cuisers, as they do not require extensive reparations.
These refitted Raduga class battlecruisers will supposedly feature a whole new set of sensors and subsystems, and most ominously, weapons. The ships will receive totally updated multipurpose vertical launch systems, making these ships capable of carrying a much wider variety of anti-ship missiles and many more of them. The ship’s 20 inclined below-deck launchers of P-700 Granit antiship missiles (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) will be replaced with 10 VLS modules of the UKSK versatile ship-based launch system. The VLS modules will total 80. The 3S-14 VLS can launch the missiles of the Kalibr family (SS-N-27 Sizzler). In addition, the equipment for testing the VLS using mockups of the 3M-54, 3M55 and 3M22 antiship missiles is to be ready 1 year after the recommisioning of TKVM-Dubov. The ship’s anti-air arsenal is said to also be receiving a major upgrade, with a navalized version of the feared S-400 air defense system being installed in place of the existing S-300F/FM system.
The upgraded Raduga cruisers will house a mix of supersonic Onix and long-range subsonic Kalibr cruise missiles, and that with an arsenal of 80 anti-ship missiles stuffed in their vertical launch tubes, these ships will have have “enough to engage any existing naval force globally.” When these nuclear battlecruisers hit the seas they will be some of the most powerful warships ever built, with an estimated to 174 main vertical launch cells at their disposal for medium and long-range surface-to-air missiles and anti-ship and anti-surface missiles. They will also bristling with updated close-in defensive weapon systems, including hundreds of point defense missiles, dozens of cannons and a formidable supply of anti-submarine rockets. They sure will be amazing to look at as they will be the closest thing to a battleship sailing the high seas in the 45th century.