The largest nuclear ship of the USSR. The largest nuclear ship of the USSR Large nuclear reconnaissance ship Ural project 1941

In the fate of this object, albeit soulless, but still built by human hands, all the tragedy of the recent transitional era is focused as if in a lens. The large reconnaissance ship "Ural" - the largest surface nuclear combat unit of our Navy - quietly faded away from the ocean expanses assigned to it. But he is remembered and proud of him.

Oleg Makarov

It makes little sense to describe such a recent history in detail: even in living memory, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was an increase in tension in relations between the USSR and the USA. America threatened with a new generation of strategic nuclear missiles, a space-based missile defense system, and the USSR, having accepted the challenge, strained the iron muscles of its defense industry for the last time.

Kwajalein Atoll, a cluster of hundreds of coral islands 3,900 kilometers south of Honolulu, was a coveted target for our intelligence. This place, thousands of kilometers away from any civilization, was used by the US military both to control nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands, and to test missile defense systems, and as a training ground, which was already fired on by the latest MX Peacekeeper ICBMs in the 1980s (they started from Vandenberg base in California).

SSV-33 "Ural", project 1941 "Titan". Displacement: 32 780/36 500 t // Length: 265 m // Width: 30 m // Height: 70 m // Draft: 7.5 m // Armor: no // Nuclear power plant: type OK-900, 2x171 MW // Engine power: 66,500 hp // Travel speed: 21.6 knots (40 km/h) // Navigation autonomy: 180 days // Crew: 930 people // Artillery: 76-mm gun AK-176 (2); Utes-M 12-mm twin machine gun mounts (4) // Anti-aircraft artillery: 30-mm AK-630 (4) // Missile armament: Igla MANPADS (16 9M-313 missiles) // Aviation group: helicopter Ka-32.

"Ural" for "Coral"

In order to keep their eyes and ears closer to American shores and test sites on the atolls, in the early 1970s, the Soviet leadership decided to send a ship into the ocean that would become a floating platform for multifunctional electronic intelligence. Well, since the USSR did not have a single naval base either in North America or on the islands of Oceania, this platform had to have a high degree of autonomy and, accordingly, a large power reserve. From here the conclusion naturally followed: the ship should be atomic.

Work on the multi-purpose sea-based information and reconnaissance complex "Coral" began in 1975. TsNPO Vympel, an enterprise in the system of the Ministry of Radio Industry, became the head enterprise on the topic. Mikhail Arkharov, a well-known specialist in the field of radar, was appointed the chief designer of the project. The Arkharovtsy had to create surveillance equipment that could track missile launches and record as much information as possible, including the type of launch vehicle, firing range, launch coordinates, weight and number of warheads, telemetry information emitted by transmitters, and even, according to some reports, chemical composition rocket fuel. In addition, the equipment of the future ocean reconnaissance aircraft was intended to detect various air, surface and underwater targets, intercept communication channels, and also to track objects in near-Earth orbit. The composition of the "Coral" included, in particular, the multi-channel shipborne radar "Atoll" of the centimeter range and the optical-electronic complex "Swan", which could conduct surveillance in the visible and infrared ranges. There is evidence that a mirror with a diameter of 1.5 m was used for the optical surveillance camera.

The radio electronics workers did a great job, creating a complex with a huge number of functions, based on the latest achievements of Soviet computer technology (in particular, an Elbrus-type computer). But ... they created it, as they say, on the shore, and it was not easy to find a common language with shipbuilders.

Dimensionless Requests

The start of the 1941 project (these figures will later be remembered more than once in connection with the unfortunate fate of the ship) was given in 1974: then the Leningrad Central Design Bureau Iceberg, known, in particular, for the development of Soviet nuclear icebreakers, began designing a nuclear-powered ship for the Coral. The first chief designer of the ship, which would later be called the SSV-33 Ural, was Alexander Vasilevsky. Vasilevsky passed away in 1978 and was replaced by Vladimir Tarasov. Representatives of the Iceberg Central Design Bureau recall that initially Mikhail Arkharov requested a 400 m long ship for his equipment. This is about 70 m longer than the Nimitz-class American nuclear aircraft carrier and 58 m shorter than the longest vessel in history, the Seawise Giant supertanker. The domestic industry had no experience in building such monsters, especially for military purposes, and shipbuilders began to win back the length from the "radio operators". We agreed on 265 m, but this was a colossal figure. When the already launched "Ural" had to be placed in the Kronstadt dock, it turned out that the dock's batoport simply would not close behind it. And then a new batoport was made, slightly curved in shape, in order to create additional space for the Ural.

Start over

“The complexity of the detailed design was that,” recalls A. G. Amosov, head of the standardization service of OJSC Central Design Bureau Iceberg. - that the main radio-electronic complex "Koral", for which the project 1941 ship was created, was developed by the Ministry of Radio Industry simultaneously and in parallel with it. At the same time, the developers of the complex did not always realize the problems associated with significant alterations in the working draft, and their possible negative impact on the seaworthiness and other qualities of the already designed ship. Changes in the Coral system were an endless stream, and they often concerned not only documentation. Often it was necessary to redo structures that were already embodied in metal and passed the stage of closing construction documents. This had an extremely negative impact on the relationship between the designers and the builder. Nevertheless, we must pay tribute to the shipbuilders for the fact that neither the constructive nor the architectural appearance of the order was affected by these changes.

steel anthill

"Ural" was laid down on the slipway "A" of the Baltic Shipyard in 1981. The launch took place in 1983, but completion was underway for another three years, and the physical launch of the nuclear power plant took place in 1987. And only on December 30, 1988, an act was signed on the transfer of the ship to the USSR Navy.

When the "Ural" entered the test, about one and a half thousand representatives of allied enterprises were added to the 930 permanent crew members, each of which "spud" its own site. In cabins designed for three or four people, seven or eight slept, and the galley could not cope with the preparation of food for this human anthill.

Atomic Adventures

Do not forget that the "Ural" was a nuclear-powered ship. The Iceberg Central Design Bureau designed it for its classic nuclear power plant used on icebreakers, adding only some additional redundancy characteristic of military products. Things didn't always go smoothly. During the launch of one of the two reactors of the OK-900 type, it turned out that one of the grids used to shut it down does not operate in self-propelled mode, that is, in the event of an accident, it could not automatically shut down the reactor, as happened, for example, during the Kursk disaster. Then it was decided to dismantle the nuclear reactor right at the Baltic Plant, which is located on Vasilyevsky Island, within the historical center of Leningrad. In addition, it was 1987, and the memory of the Chernobyl nightmare was still very fresh. It is not surprising that the decision to dismantle the reactor was not easy and was taken at the highest level. The disassembly was carried out by hydraulic fracturing: water was supplied into the reactor under high pressure, and its cover was torn off the body in stepwise movements. Fortunately, since the reactor had not yet reached MCU (minimum controllable power), the radiation from it was small. The opened reactor was examined by representatives of the design organization - the Gorky Design Bureau (now OJSC Afrikantov OKBM), but the cause of the defect was not found. Despite the most difficult conditions for this operation and its technological complexity, the grate did not work in self-propelled mode - it could only be lowered by force, with the help of an engine. In the end, it was decided to allow the ship to go to sea with this defect, even if it somewhat reduced the nuclear safety of the Ural.

Another story happened when the Ural was on the Kronstadt roadstead: the circulation pump of one of the reactors suddenly failed. The tests were in full swing, many representatives of subcontractors were present at the plant, and the management of the Baltic Shipyard feared, not without reason, that if the ship arrived in Leningrad with an emergency nuclear installation, then the same subcontractors would refuse to work at the Ural. And then the decision was born to change the circulation pump right on the roads. Leningrad shipbuilders coped with this task, although it was incredibly difficult to replace an eight-ton knot during sea rolling. After this incident, no serious "nuclear" troubles happened to the Urals.

Politics and management

All incidents that occurred during the construction and testing of the ship are easily explained by "growing pains". "Ural" was a unique creation that had no analogues or prototypes. Surely there would be fewer problems during the construction of his sistership. At the Baltic Shipyard, the Ural had order number 810. There was also order 811 - for the second large reconnaissance ship, apparently intended for duty in the waters of the Atlantic. They could work in pairs - for example, observing satellites orbiting the Earth in a continuous mode. For order 811, only one section was assembled, but that was it: the time came when there were practically no cases for the already built Ural.

In service and out of service

The further fate of the Ural is well known from the publications that have appeared in recent years. After being put into service, the ship made a two-month transition to the place of deployment in the Far East - in Fokino (Primorsky Territory), and so it remained there forever. There was no infrastructure (at least in the form of a mooring wall) for the ocean giant, and it was actually kept on the roadstead, without power supply from the shore (water, steam, electricity). The ship gradually developed the resource of its power plants and degraded: accidents occurred, the consequences of which were not eliminated. In 1992, nuclear reactors were shut down. The country was no longer ready to exploit and support the giants of the Cold War in a combat state. And it's not just about money and political will: to assemble a ship with such a colossal crew, part of which must be highly qualified specialists, turned out to be an unbearable managerial task.

Since 2010, Ural has been scrapped. Something will go to scrap, but some units (due to the fact that the ship almost never went to sea) still have a decent unused resource. In particular, Atomflot, based in Murmansk, is very interested in the piping systems of the steam generator plant (Ural's PG-28 steam generator is similar to the steam generators used in Arktika-type icebreakers).

It is possible that in a few years a new-generation nuclear-powered icebreaker will leave the stocks of the Baltic Shipyard: a two-draught (with the ability to enter relatively shallow river mouths) vessel with a capacity of 60 MW. But this is if everything goes according to plan for the famous St. Petersburg enterprise, which once built icebreakers, heavy nuclear cruisers and the Urals. Now the plant is going through a difficult period associated with a “conflict of business entities” that is very typical for our country. And on the factory slipway "A", from which the "Ural" once descended, the "Mistral" was laid down. It remains to be hoped that this instrument of French colonial policy will have a happier fate than the atomic monster, which never saw the Pacific atolls.

During the Cold War, the USSR faced an urgent need to control potential ballistic missile launches from anywhere in the world. It was not possible to solve this problem by ground means, the USSR simply did not have military bases in many parts of the world. In turn, the ships of the Marine Space Fleet (“Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin” and others, see the articles “History of the Marine Space Fleet” and “The Last Flight of Yuri Gagarin”) did not have active radars and were intended to work on the “responders” of domestic spacecraft .

Thus, a decision was made to create a special warship that would allow controlling any subspace object at any segment of its trajectory.

In 1977, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a Decree on the creation of a Project 1941 ship (dubbed "Ural" when laid down) with a system of special technical reconnaissance equipment "Coral". The preparation and coordination of the draft resolution with numerous ministries and departments was ensured by a group of employees of the 10th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Radio Industry and the Leningrad branch of the GPTP under the leadership of V. Kuryshev, who at that time held the position of deputy head of the main department.

The designer of the ship was the Leningrad Central Design Bureau "Iceberg" of the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry, the construction plant was the Baltic Shipyard named after S. Ordzhonikidze. The Central Research and Production Association "Vympel" of the Ministry of Radio Industry was appointed the lead developer of the "Coral" system. More than 200 research institutes, design bureaus, factories were involved in the creation of the "Coral" system -manufacturers and installation and adjustment organizations. The head organization for carrying out installation and adjustment work on the complexes and the Coral system as a whole, conducting factory tests, providing state tests and delivering the system to the Navy, was appointed the Granit Production Association.

The Ural was laid down in June 1981, launched in 1983, and on January 6, 1989, the Naval flag was hoisted on the ship. The ship received tail number SSV-33.

combat service

In 1989, an act of state acceptance of the ship was signed and its transfer to the home port of Vladivostok began. Comprehensive teams of specialists were made up who, during the voyage, eliminated possible malfunctions. The management of two Elbrus computers was headed by the scientist Vladimir Anikeev. The computers did not want to enter the operating parameters and were capricious. For the first time, Anikeev saw the tropical sun on the upper deck only abeam Singapore. Almost all the time he disappeared in the depths of the ship and brought the equipment to condition so that it could process and issue information in real time. After 59 days, the handsome Ural entered Strelok Bay near Vladivostok. There was no berth for the gigantic ship, and he was forced to anchor in the bay.

The crew immediately began preparations for a military campaign in the area of the US missile defense test site on the Kwajelein Atoll. However, this trip never took place. For a long time, the crew, even with the help of specialists from the Baltic Shipyard, could not eliminate a malfunction in the cooling system of the ship's nuclear installation. There were problems with the functioning of the system of special technical means "Coral".

But the real problems began when, in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (USSR Law "On universal military duty" dated April 10, 1989) to exempt former students from military service, almost all highly trained junior naval specialists for military service were transferred to the reserve.

This was reflected in the overall preparedness and competence of the ship's crew.

In the summer of 1990, a fire broke out at the Ural, in which the stern machine was disabled: as a result of the fire, the electric cables coming from the stern boiler burned out. For more than a year, the power supply of the ship was provided only by the bow engine, but in the fall of 1991, it also burned down. After that, for several months, emergency diesel generators provided all the energy to the ship.

There was no money for repairs in the disintegrating country.

As a result, the unique ship, which had no analogues in the world, began to be used simply as a hostel for junior officers. In various sources, there is information that the Ural was still on combat duty, despite the breakdowns, the ship successfully controlled the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, intercepting radio traffic in the networks of the Navy, Air Force and PLO of the USA and Japan.

In 2001, the ship, which had gone on only one combat campaign, was finally decommissioned and laid up on a remote pier. Next to him, too, was a brother in misfortune - the missile cruiser "Admiral Lazarev" (former "Frunze", one of the four nuclear missile attack cruisers of project 1144 "Orlan"; the only remaining cruiser of project 1144 "Pyotr Veliky" is now the flagship Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy).

In April 2008, a tender was held for the disposal of the ship and its nuclear power plant.

The ship is being scrapped (2010) at the Zvezda Far East Air Plant.

The performance data of the ship

Displacement: standard 32,780 tons, total 34,640 tons (according to other sources 32,780 tons / 36,500 tons);

Length: 265 meters;

Width: 30 m;

Draft: 7.8 m (7.5 m);

Reservation: none;

Power plant: OK-900 nuclear power plant, 2 x 171 MW, 2 VDRK-500 boilers, 2 GTZA-688 turbo gear units;

Speed: 21.6 knots;

Cruising range: unlimited;

Autonomy: 180 days;

Armament: one 76-mm artillery mount fore and aft, four six-barreled 30-mm gun mounts "Oka" and four double-barreled 12.7-mm machine gun mounts "Utyos-M". The ammunition should have been enough for at least 20 minutes of battle;

Anti-aircraft weapons: MANPADS "Igla" (16 missiles 9M-313);

Aviation: 1 Ka-32 helicopter;

Crew: 233 officers, 690 foremen and sailors (according to other sources - 890 crew members in total, of which at least 400 officers and midshipmen);

The basis of the radio-electronic equipment of the ship is the reconnaissance complex "Coral", which includes two computers of the Elbrus type and several computers "ES-1046".

Elbrus is a series of Soviet supercomputers developed at the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Computer Technology (ITMiVT) in the 1970s-1990s, as well as processors and systems based on them.

The main difference of the Elbrus system is its focus on the high-level languages of the 1980s. There are no assembly languages in the system. The base language is Autocode Elbrus El-76 (author V. M. Pentkovsky), in which the system-wide software (OSPO) is written, is the language of the Algol class. It resembles the Algol-68 language, the main difference is dynamic type binding, which is supported at the hardware level. When compiling, the El-76 program was translated into non-operand commands of the stack architecture.

The main difference between the Elbrus architecture and most existing systems is the use of tags. In the Elbrus system, each memory word has, in addition to the information part containing the data element, also a control part - the element tag, on the basis of which the processor hardware dynamically selects the desired operation variant and controls the types of operands.

The hardware and OS implement a flexible mechanism for managing virtual memory (called "mathematical" in the documentation). The programmer is given the opportunity to describe arrays of up to 2 to the 20th power of elements.

Interesting facts from the life of the ship

* The chief designer of Ural, Arkharov M.A., received a medal and the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for this unique project. In addition, being a civilian, he received the military rank of Rear Admiral.

* The ship has a construction (permanent) roll - 2 degrees to the port side, which was due to a more developed superstructure on the port side. During the transition of the ship to the place of deployment and its stay in Strelok Bay before the fire in 1990, this roll was compensated by the ship's systems - the working sensors for keel and side roll, as well as hull deflection showed a normal state.

* Due to its unique design, the Ural is the only three-masted warship in the world (except for the training sailing ships that are part of many navies).

* The complex of reconnaissance equipment of the ship included a "camera" with a lens diameter of about 1.5 meters.

* In 1988, Ural was visited by the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, later the first and last President of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev. For him, a part of the superstructure was specially cut off and a ladder was put up so that it was convenient to climb to the third tier. But all this turned out to be in vain: the Secretary General never got on the ship.

* In 1990, during the fire of the main artillery ammunition of the Pacific Fleet, the ship was 1.5-2 km from the fire site. Despite the huge number of shells and missiles flying in different directions, thanks to the skillful leadership of the commander, Captain 1st Rank Keshkov, and the selfless actions of the entire crew, not a single shell, rocket or fragment hit the ship. The crew, practically under heavy fire, at night, with the support of only one tugboat, brought him to a safe place.

* The first commander of the Ural, Captain 1st Rank Ilya Keshkov, turned to Russian President Boris Yeltsin for help, but received no answer.

Impressions of a journalist from "Ural"

In 2006, a correspondent of the Trud newspaper visited Ural. He managed to catch the last years of the ship.

In the Strelok Bay in the south of Primorye, for a decade and a half, the atomic reconnaissance ship SSV-33 "Ural" has been rotting at the berth without any benefit. It is sarcastically nicknamed by the Pacific as a cabin carrier. And SSV stands for "special sleeping car". How else to call this headache of the current admirals? Since 1992, after a single military campaign, a giant reconnaissance ship has been used as an officer's hostel. It was somehow possible to live on it.

And what were the hopes ... Almost a thousand crew members. The ability to stand off the coast of the United States for months and "cover" their entire territory with electronic intelligence. To fix everything - from the trajectories of ballistic missiles to conversations on mobile phones. Everything is unique here. Intelligence equipment and a computer center are state-of-the-art. For relaxation - a smoking lounge , a billiard room, sports and cinema halls, a nature salon, slot machines, two saunas and a swimming pool.It is not without reason that the absolutely civilian chief designer of the Ural Arkharov, after putting his offspring into operation, was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and Rear Admiral.

The picture that has opened up to us today on board the Ural is horrific. Perhaps the curse of the ship lies in the fateful number for the country 1941? That, unfortunately, someone came up with the idea to name this unique project.

Strange, but through the checkpoint to the ship with a nuclear installation was allowed to pass without hindrance. The dark eye-sockets of the windows of the former training detachment of signalmen, as well as the swimming pool, in which once the sailors underwent light diving training, looked gloomily. Desolation and decay. And in the middle - tightly moored to the pier "Ural". Even just climbing on board is now dangerous. Many ladders are already without handrails. Handrails are cut along the sides. There are no handles on the doors. Copper plugs and taps have long been screwed and sent for scrap. ” up to 15 people and fits in one cockpit. Nuclear reactors are shut down, one officer looks after them. In many rooms - water. Roll to starboard - 7 degrees. Two years ago, when it was a couple of degrees cooler, they docked the Ural and tried to level it. It didn’t work out. They spat and left it to rot.

Nuclear ship SSV-33 "Ural" - video

BRZK SSV-33 "Ural" - warship, the world's largest reconnaissance ship, the only ship of the project 1941 code "Titan". In 1977, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a Decree on the creation of a Project 1941 ship (dubbed "Ural" when laid down) with a system of special technical reconnaissance equipment "Coral".
After arriving at the base (Strelok Bay, Pacific settlement, Pacific Fleet), the crew began preparations for a military campaign in the area of the US missile defense test site on the Kwajelein Atoll. However, this trip never took place. For a long time, the crew, even with the help of specialists from the Baltic Shipyard, could not eliminate a malfunction in the cooling system of the ship's nuclear installation. Graduates of military land schools and academies - specialists in the operation of unique complexes of the Coral system, the Elbrus MVK and functional software - did not want to serve in the fleet anymore and began to write off ashore.

The Navy could not solve the problem of operating the onboard nuclear installation and the main complexes of the Coral system for several years. After the collapse of the USSR, the equipment was mothballed, and the technological premises were sealed. Such was the fate of the large nuclear reconnaissance ship "Ural" with a system of special technical reconnaissance equipment "Coral". During the Cold War, the USSR faced an urgent need to control potential ballistic missile launches from anywhere in the world. It was not possible to solve this problem by ground means, the USSR simply did not have military bases in many parts of the world. In turn, the ships of the Marine Space Fleet (“Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin” and others, see the articles “History of the Marine Space Fleet” and “The Last Flight of Yuri Gagarin”) did not have active radars and were intended to work on the “responders” of domestic spacecraft .

Thus, a decision was made to create a special warship that would allow controlling any subspace object at any segment of its trajectory. In 1977, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a Decree on the creation of a ship of project 1941 (during the laying of the ship called "Ural") with a system of special technical reconnaissance equipment "Coral". The preparation and coordination of the draft resolution with numerous ministries and departments was ensured by a group of employees of the 10th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Radio Industry and the Leningrad branch of the GPTP under the leadership of V. Kuryshev, who at that time held the position of deputy head of the main department. The design engineer of the ship was the Leningrad Central Design Bureau "Iceberg" of the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry, the construction plant was the Baltic Shipyard named after S. Ordzhonikidze. TsNPO Vympel of the Ministry of Radio Industry was appointed the lead developer of the Coral system. More than 200 research institutes, design bureaus, manufacturing plants and installation and adjustment organizations were involved in the creation of the Coral system. The head organization for carrying out installation and adjustment work on the complexes and the Coral system as a whole, conducting factory tests, providing state tests and delivering the system to the Navy, was appointed the Granit Production Association.

The Ural was laid down in June 1981, launched in 1983, and on January 6, 1989, the Naval flag was hoisted on the ship. The ship received tail number SSV-33. If there are ships that are destined to become a floating misfortune of their own fleet, then the Ural is in the forefront. Fans of mysticism can see an ominous sign in the very design number of this floating island with a nuclear engine - 1941. Well, it was necessary to think of it from the many digital combinations for the Ural to choose just this one. In our country, it is not worth explaining to anyone what tragedies it is associated with in the public mind. In a word, mysticism is to blame, or it's not the case, but the 1941 project, for which billions of full-weight Soviet rubles were spent in the 80s, ended in failure.

To understand why the ill-fated Ural was needed, you will have to look into the South Pacific Ocean. There, near nine dozen small islands of the Kwajalein Atoll, there is a top-secret United States training ground. Minuteman and MX intercontinental ballistic missiles, launched for test purposes from the state of California, fly here. And since 1983, Kvavjalein has become one of the American research centers for the implementation of the Strategic Defense Initiative, conceived by President Ronald Reagan with the aim of disarming the USSR. From here, in preparation for the "Star Wars", they began to launch interceptor missiles designed to hit Soviet nuclear warheads. The telemetric information from these tests could tell Moscow a lot about Reagan's intrigues. However, how do you get it?

Civilian ships "Akademik Sergei Korolev", "Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin" or "Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov", equipped with special control and measuring systems for monitoring space objects, were not suitable for reconnaissance of what is happening on Kwajalein. The main thing is that they did not have active radars and were intended only to receive signals from domestic satellites. This means that it was necessary to build a special nuclear warship that would be able to collect the entire amount of available information about any subspace object on any part of its trajectory in any area of the World Ocean. This is how the 1941 Titan project came about. The designer of the ship was the Leningrad Central Design Bureau "Iceberg" of the Ministry of Shipbuilding Industry, the construction plant was the Baltic Shipyard named after S. Ordzhonikidze.
To collect a huge amount of intelligence about the launches of American ballistic missiles, electronics with capabilities unprecedented at that time were needed. 18 Soviet ministries with their design bureaus and research institutes worked on its creation for the Ural. The Leningrad production and technical enterprise specially created for this purpose was engaged in equipping the unique ship with special equipment.

What happened in the end was called the ship's surveillance system "Coral". It was based on seven powerful radio-electronic complexes. To process the received information, a unique, for its time, computer complex was installed in the Urals, consisting of several computers "ES-1046" and "Elbrus". With their help, it was possible to decipher the characteristics of any space object at a distance of up to 1,500 kilometers. Experts say that the Ural crew was able to determine even the secrets of their fuel by the composition of the exhaust gases of ballistic missile engines.
In the event of a war in remote areas of the ocean, a unique ship had to be able to stand up for itself. To do this, he received artillery that approximately corresponded to the armament of the destroyer: one 76-mm artillery mount at the bow and stern, four quadruple launchers of the Igla portable anti-aircraft missile system, four six-barreled 30-mm AK-630 gun mounts and four double-barreled 12.7 mm Utyos-M machine gun mounts. Ammunition should have been enough for at least 20 minutes of battle. A Ka-32 helicopter was located in the aviation hangar at the stern. The nuclear power plant made it possible to go indefinitely at a speed of more than 20 knots.

The miracle ship was supposed to be controlled by a crew of approximately 1000 people, of which at least 400 were officers and midshipmen. The personnel of the intelligence complex was divided into 6 special services. For sailors to relax on a long voyage, the Urals provided for a smoking lounge, a billiard room, sports and cinema halls, a nature salon, slot machines, two saunas and a swimming pool. It is clear that to accommodate all this technical magnificence, a huge ship hull was needed. It was made so, taking as a basis the design of the Kirov-type nuclear missile cruiser of project 1144. As a result, the length of the Ural turned out to be about two football fields, and the height from the keel to the klotik was the size of a 28-storey building.
The hopes that the Ministry of Defense of the USSR placed on the newest reconnaissance ship are evidenced by a truly unique fact: the absolutely civilian chief designer of the Ural, Arkharov, was immediately awarded the military rank of Rear Admiral upon completion of the work. Well, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor is a matter of course.

The Ural was laid down at the Baltic Shipyard in the summer of 1981. It was launched into the water in 1983. In 1989, the ship entered the combat structure of the USSR Navy. And immediately, under the command of Captain 1st Rank Ilya Keshkov, he set off on a two-month transition to his permanent base in the Pacific Ocean. In the campaign, the reconnaissance ship was secretly accompanied by our multi-purpose nuclear submarine. And also - a lot of aircraft and ships of the NATO countries, which were at a loss: why do the Russians need this ocean giant with space antennas?
At first, everything went great. On the way to the Pacific base, the crew tested the capabilities of their reconnaissance equipment. Without difficulty, a thousand miles away, the launch of the American space shuttle Columbia was discovered. Then - the launch into orbit from the territory of the United States of two satellites of optoelectronic and electronic intelligence, launched under the "Star Wars" program. It is not worth mentioning such trifles as the incidental fixation of the parameters of radar stations located along the way of foreign military bases, as well as NATO ships and aircraft accompanying the Ural.

Hundreds of industry representatives, together with the crew, went on an ocean voyage, day and night trying to debug the equipment that failed every now and then. The cooling system of the nuclear reactor was malfunctioning, the computer complex, some information collection complexes were not working correctly. There was a list of five degrees to the port side, which could not be eliminated.
Everything turned out to be even worse when the Ural arrived at its base in the Pacific settlement, nicknamed by the sailors as Texas. No one could have imagined that the first campaign of a monstrously expensive unique ship would also be the last. The mooring wall was not prepared for him. How nothing like this had been prepared before for the heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers Minsk and Novorossiysk. Therefore, neither fuel, nor steam, nor water, nor electricity from the shore could be supplied to the ships. Their diesel generators and boilers thrashed non-stop, knocking out a precious motor resource, which was supposed to be spent only on campaigns. It is not surprising that those cruisers, in fact, “ate” themselves and were scrapped long before the deadlines.

Now the same fate awaited the "Ural". He, too, most of the time stood on mooring barrels in Strelok Bay. And in the summer of 1990, a fire broke out on a nuclear reconnaissance ship, which disabled the aft engine room. The electric cables leading from the feed boiler burned out. For more than a year, the power supply of the ship was provided only by the bow engine, but soon it also burned down. After that, only emergency diesel generators gave all the energy to the ship. There was no money for repairs. The commander of the ship, Captain 1st Rank Keshkov, in desperation, even wrote an official letter to the then President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin. As expected, the commander did not receive any money for repairs or an answer.
As a result of all the misadventures in 1992, the nuclear reactors of the Ural were drowned out, and he himself was put on a remote pier, turning an officer's dormitory into an unprecedented size. For this, the Pacific Oceanians caustically nicknamed the SSV-33 "Ural" a cabin-bearer. And the abbreviation CCB began to be deciphered as follows: a special sleeping car.

In various sources, there is information that the Ural was still on combat duty, despite the breakdowns, the ship successfully controlled the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, intercepting radio traffic in the networks of the Navy, Air Force and PLO of the USA and Japan. In 2001, the ship, which had gone on only one combat campaign, was finally decommissioned and laid up on a remote pier. Next to him, too, was a brother in misfortune - the Admiral Lazarev missile cruiser (the former Frunze, one of the four Orlan project 1144 nuclear missile attack cruisers; the only remaining in service project 1144 Peter the Great cruiser is now the flagship Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy).
In April 2008, a tender was held for the disposal of the ship and its nuclear power plant. The ship was dismantled (2010) at the Zvezda Far East plant. In June 2012, Vyacheslav Ruksha, General Director of FSUE Rosatomflot of the Rosatom State Corporation, announced his intention to use the equipment and power plant of the BARZK Ural to repair existing nuclear icebreakers. In September 2014, a re-tender was announced for the disposal of the BARZK "Ural".

Tactical and technical characteristics of the ship SSV-33 "Ural"

Displacement	32,780 t / 36,500 t
Dimensions	Length - 265 m Width - 30 m Height - 70 m
Draft	7.5 m
Engines	NPP type OK-900, 2 × 171 MW, 2 boilers VDRK-500, 2 turbo gear units GTZA-688
Power	66 500 l. from.
mover	2
travel speed	21.6 knots (40 km/h)
Autonomy of navigation	180 days
Crew	950 people
Armament	2 × 76 mm gun AK-176M 4 × 12.7 mm Utyos-M twin machine gun mounts 4 × 30 mm AK-630 MANPADS "Igla" (16 missiles 9M-313) 4 × 4 launchers of the PPDO "Rain" complex
Aviation Group	Helicopter Ka-27

Photo of the ship SSV-33 "Ural" with the radar antenna "Atoll" without a protective housing

If there are ships that are destined to become a floating misfortune of their own fleet, then the Ural is in the forefront. Fans of mysticism can see an ominous sign in the very project number of this nuclear-powered floating island - 1941.
Well, it was necessary to think of it from the many digital combinations for the "Ural" to choose exactly this one. In our country, it is not worth explaining to anyone what tragedies it is associated with in the public mind. In a word, mysticism is to blame, or it's not the case, but the 1941 project, for which billions of full-weight Soviet rubles were spent in the 80s, ended in failure.

To understand why the ill-fated Ural was needed, you have to look into the South Pacific. There, near nine dozen small islands of the Kwajalein Atoll, there is a top-secret United States training ground. Minuteman and MX intercontinental ballistic missiles, launched for test purposes from the state of California, fly here.

And since 1983, Kvavjalein has become one of the American research centers for the implementation of the Strategic Defense Initiative, conceived by President Ronald Reagan with the aim of disarming the USSR. From here, in preparation for the "Star Wars" they began to launch interceptor missiles designed to hit Soviet nuclear warheads. Telemetric information from these tests could tell Moscow a lot about Reagan's intrigues. However, how do you get it?

The main thing is that they did not have active radars and were intended only to receive signals from domestic satellites. This means that it was necessary to build a special nuclear warship that would be able to collect the entire amount of available information about any subspace object on any part of its trajectory in any area of the World Ocean.

In 1977, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR adopted a Decree on the creation of a Project 1941 ship (dubbed "Ural" when laid down) with a system of special technical reconnaissance equipment "Coral". The preparation and coordination of the draft resolution with numerous ministries and departments was ensured by a group of employees of the 10th Main Directorate of the Ministry of Radio Industry and the Leningrad branch of the GPTP under the leadership of V. Kuryshev, who at that time held the position of deputy head of the main department.

The Ural was laid down in June 1981, launched in 1983, and on January 6, 1989, the Naval flag was hoisted on the ship. The ship received tail number SSV-33.

To collect a huge amount of intelligence about the launches of American ballistic missiles, electronics with capabilities unprecedented at that time were needed. 18 Soviet ministries with their design bureaus and research institutes worked on its creation for the Ural. The Leningrad production and technical enterprise specially created for this purpose was engaged in equipping the unique ship with special equipment.

In the event of a war in remote areas of the ocean, a unique ship had to be able to stand up for itself. To do this, he received artillery that approximately corresponded to the armament of the destroyer: one 76-mm artillery mount at the bow and stern, four quadruple launchers of the Igla portable anti-aircraft missile system, four six-barreled 30-mm AK-630 gun mounts and four double-barreled 12.7 mm Utyos-M machine gun mounts. Ammunition should have been enough for at least 20 minutes of battle. A Ka-32 helicopter was located in the aviation hangar at the stern. The nuclear power plant made it possible to go indefinitely at a speed of more than 20 knots.

The personnel of the intelligence complex was divided into 6 special services.

For sailors to relax on a long voyage, the Urals provided for a smoking lounge, a billiard room, sports and cinema halls, a nature salon, slot machines, two saunas and a swimming pool.

With such dimensions (the height from the keel to the closet - from a 28-storey building), an appropriate power plant was required. As a result of brief reflections and discussions, shipbuilding officials, fleet commanders and designers chose a nuclear power plant. For reasons of economy, they decided to use the nuclear power plant previously used on the Orlans, but at the same time apply a number of developments obtained in the design of nuclear power plants for icebreakers.

It was based on two double-circuit pressurized water reactors KN-3 (according to other sources, KL-40) with a thermal power of 170 MW each. Steam from the second circuit of the reactors was supplied to the GTZA-688 turbo-gear units, which gave a power of 23 thousand hp. every. In addition, the heat generated by the reactors was used to provide electricity to the target equipment. As an additional power plant, the 1941 project received two WDRK-500 boilers. The latter were located in the bow and stern holds. As it turned out, with sufficiently large dimensions of the ship itself, it was very difficult to fit all the elements of the power plant.

The use of a nuclear power plant gave the new ship good performance. Despite the significant displacement and size, it could move at speeds up to 20-22 knots, and the cruising range was limited solely by food supplies. At the same time, according to calculations, a crew of 923 people (of which 233 officers and 144 midshipmen) could be away from the base for 180 days.

A large three-tiered superstructure with living quarters, control posts and target equipment was provided above the ship's hull. Four masts were placed on the roof of the superstructure with places for installing various antennas, as well as the main radar antenna under a spherical casing. The specially designed complex of radio reconnaissance and radar "Coral" was associated with several electronic systems, such as the radar MR-750 "Fregat-MA", MR-123 "Vympel", MR-212/201 "Vychegda-U", "Neman-P and Atoll.

In addition, there was an optical-electronic complex "Swan" to monitor the launches. According to some reports, it was equipped with an optical system with a mirror diameter of about one and a half meters. With such parameters, the Lebed could detect the launch of an intercontinental missile from a distance of several hundred kilometers. To detect underwater objects, Project 1941 ships were to be equipped with MGK-335M Argun and MG-747 Amulet sonar stations. Information processing, in accordance with the project, was to be handled by a special computer complex with two computers of the Elbrus type and several EC-1046s. Probably, other systems were also provided on the ships, but the exact composition of the special equipment of the Titan project is still not known.

The hopes that the Ministry of Defense of the USSR placed on the newest reconnaissance ship are evidenced by a truly unique fact: the absolutely civilian chief designer of the Ural, Arkharov, was immediately awarded the military rank of Rear Admiral upon completion of the work. Well, the title of Hero of Socialist Labor is a matter of course.

At first, everything went great. On the way to the Pacific base, the crew tested the capabilities of their reconnaissance equipment. Without difficulty, a thousand miles away, the launch of the American space shuttle Columbia was discovered. Then - the launch into orbit from the territory of the United States of two satellites of optoelectronic and electronic intelligence, launched under the "Star Wars" program. It is not worth mentioning such trifles as the incidental fixation of the parameters of radar stations located along the way of foreign military bases, as well as NATO ships and aircraft accompanying the Ural.

However, it would not be Soviet military equipment if everything went smoothly with it. Especially with undeveloped samples, the operating experience of which no one had. Hundreds of industry representatives, together with the crew, went on an ocean voyage, day and night trying to debug the equipment that failed every now and then. The cooling system of the nuclear reactor was malfunctioning, the computer complex, some information collection complexes were not working correctly. There was a list of five degrees to the port side, which could not be eliminated.

The management of two Elbrus computers was headed by the scientist Vladimir Anikeev. The computers did not want to enter the operating parameters and were capricious. For the first time, Anikeev saw the tropical sun on the upper deck only abeam Singapore. Almost all the time he disappeared in the depths of the ship and brought the equipment to condition so that it could process and issue information in real time.

This was reflected in the overall preparedness and competence of the ship's crew.

In this campaign, the Ural was accompanied by a nuclear submarine. On the way, the Ural visited and stopped for some time in Cam Ranh.
While parked in Cam Ranh, a patrol of the PDS (anti-sabotage service) on the Ural used a weapon (the Dozhd anti-sabotage complex) against an unknown target in the water near the side of the ship.

Everything turned out to be even worse when the Ural arrived at its base in the Pacific city, nicknamed Tikhas by the sailors. (aka Fokino). No one could have imagined that the first campaign of a monstrously expensive unique ship would also be the last.

The mooring wall was not prepared for him.

How nothing like this had been prepared before for the heavy aircraft-carrying cruisers Minsk and Novorossiysk. Therefore, neither fuel, nor steam, nor water, nor electricity from the shore could be supplied to the ships. Their diesel generators and boilers thrashed non-stop, knocking out a precious motor resource, which was supposed to be spent only on campaigns. It is not surprising that those cruisers, in fact, “ate” themselves and were scrapped long before the deadlines.

There was no money for repairs. The commander of the ship, Captain 1st Rank Keshkov, in desperation, even wrote an official letter to the then President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin.
As expected, the commander did not receive any money for repairs or an answer.

As a result of all the misadventures in 1992, the nuclear reactors of the Ural were drowned out, and he himself was put on a remote pier, turning an officer's dormitory into an unprecedented size. For this, the Pacific Oceanians caustically nicknamed the SSV-33 "Ural" a cabin-bearer. And the abbreviation CCB began to be deciphered as follows: a special sleeping car.

Well, can the venture with a nuclear reconnaissance ship be called an admiral's adventure? No, of course not. Even standing on barrels in Sagittarius Bay, the Ural confidently controlled the entire northern part of the Pacific Ocean, intercepting radio traffic in the networks of the Navy, Air Force and PLO of the USA and Japan.

If we had come closer to the territory of the United States, we would not have to regret today the thoughtless loss on our own initiative of the intelligence center in Cuban Lourdes, from where the Russian military left at the direction of Yeltsin's successor Vladimir Putin in 2002. Almost everything that the intelligence officers of the Main Intelligence Directorate and FAPSI did in Lourdes could have been done by the Urals: intercept any information from American communications satellites, terrestrial telecommunications cables. Up to telephone conversations of Americans from their own kitchens.

In 2001, the ship, which had gone on only one combat campaign, was finally decommissioned and laid up on a remote pier.

Next to him, too, was laid up by a brother in misfortune - the missile cruiser "Admiral Lazarev"

(one of the four Project 1144 Orlan nuclear missile attack cruisers; the only project 1144 Pyotr Veliky cruiser remaining in service is now the flagship of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy).
Armament

Artillery 2 AK-100 100mm gun mounts or 1×2 AK-130 130mm gun mounts

Anti-aircraft artillery 8 ZU AK-630, or 6 ZRAK "Kortik

Missile armament 20 PU anti-ship missiles P-700 Granit

2×2 Osa-M (40 missiles) or 8×8 Kinzhal (64 missiles).

Anti-submarine weapons PLUR "Metel" or PLUR "Waterfall", RBU-6000 "Smerch-3" or RBU-12000 "Boa".

In April 2008, a tender was held for the disposal of the ship and its nuclear power plant.

The ship is being scrapped (2010) at the Zvezda Far East Air Plant.

Interesting facts from the life of the ship

* The ship has a construction (permanent) list - 2 degrees to the port side, which was due to a more developed superstructure on the port side. During the transition of the ship to the place of deployment and its stay in the Strelok Bay before the fire in 1990, this roll was compensated by the ship's systems - the working sensors for keel and side roll, as well as hull deflection showed a normal state.

* Due to its unique design, the Ural is the only three-masted warship in the world (except for the training sailing ships that are part of many navies).
* The complex of reconnaissance equipment of the ship included a "camera" with a lens diameter of about 1.5 meters.

* According to most sources, the Ural is identical in its power plant to the TAKR project 1144 Orlan

* NATO classification - Kapusta

* The ship "Ural" is mentioned in the novel by Max Brooks "World War Z", known from the film adaptation of "World War Z", starring (and also the film's producer) - Brad Pitt.

Impressions of a journalist from "Ural"

In 2006, a correspondent of the Trud newspaper visited Ural. He managed to catch the last years of the ship.

And what were the hopes ... Almost a thousand crew members. The ability to stand off the coast of the United States for months and "cover" their entire territory with electronic intelligence. To fix everything - from the trajectories of ballistic missiles to conversations on mobile phones. Everything is unique here. Intelligence equipment and a computer center are state-of-the-art. For relaxation - a smoking lounge , billiard room, sports and cinema halls, nature salon, slot machines, two saunas and a swimming pool.

No wonder the absolutely civilian chief designer of the "Ural" Arkharov, after putting his offspring into operation, was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor and Rear Admiral.
The picture that has opened up to us today on board the Ural is horrific. Perhaps the curse of the ship lies in the fateful number for the country 1941? That, unfortunately, someone came up with the idea to name this unique project.

The crew "shrank" to 15 people and fit in one cockpit. Nuclear reactors are muffled, one officer looks after them. In many rooms there is water. The roll to starboard is 7 degrees. Two years ago, when it was a couple of degrees less, "Ural ” Docked and tried to align. It didn't work out. Spat and left to rot.

The performance data of the ship

Displacement: standard 32,780 tons, total 34,640 tons (according to other sources 32,780 tons / 36,500 tons);
Length: 265 meters;
Width: 30 m;
Draft: 7.8 m (7.5 m);
Reservation: none;
Power plant: OK-900 nuclear power plant, 2 x 171 MW, 2 VDRK-500 boilers, 2 GTZA-688 turbo gear units;
Speed: 21.6 knots;
Cruising range: unlimited;
Autonomy: 180 days;
Armament: one 76-mm artillery mount at the bow and stern,
four six-barreled 30-mm gun mounts "Oka" and four double-barreled 12.7-mm machine gun mounts "Utyos-M".
The ammunition should have been enough for at least 20 minutes of battle;
Anti-aircraft weapons: MANPADS "Igla" (16 missiles 9M-313);
Aviation: 1 Ka-32 helicopter;
Crew: 233 officers, 690 foremen and sailors (according to other sources - 890 crew members in total, of which at least 400 officers and midshipmen);

The basis of the radio-electronic equipment of the ship is the reconnaissance complex "Coral", which includes two computers of the Elbrus type and several computers "ES-1046".

Elbrus is a series of Soviet supercomputers developed at the Institute of Fine Mechanics and Computer Technology (ITMiVT) in the 1970s-1990s, as well as processors and systems based on them.
The main difference of the Elbrus system is its focus on the high-level languages of the 1980s. There are no assembly languages in the system.

The base language - Autocode Elbrus El-76 (author V. M. Pentkovsky), in which the general system software (OSPO) is written, is the language of the Algol class. It resembles the Algol-68 language, the main difference is dynamic type binding, which is supported at the hardware level. When compiling, the El-76 program was translated into non-operand commands of the stack architecture.

For a number of reasons, the number of warships built in the Soviet Union with nuclear power plants (NPPs) left much to be desired. Moreover, the built ships, starting from the second half of the eighties, became victims of political, economic, etc. changes in the life of the country. As a result, the Russian Navy currently has only one cruiser with a nuclear power plant, while the other three are laid up and awaiting their fate. A few years ago, the fate of another domestic ship with a nuclear power plant was decided. In accordance with the decision of the command of the Navy and the Ministry of Defense, the disposal of the large nuclear reconnaissance ship SSV-33 "Ural" has begun. The fate of this unique ship has developed in the most unpleasant way. He managed to serve a few months and only once go on a campaign.
As you know, the key to successful interception of an enemy ballistic missile is the timely detection of the launch and the transfer of information to the appropriate unit. To this end, the leading countries of the world have built and continue to build missile warning radar stations and launch specialized spacecraft. Due to its geographical and military-political position, the Soviet Union did not have the ability to place warning radars outside its territory. As a result, a large part of the planet remained, as they say, a white spot. The solution to this problem was to be new ships equipped with appropriate radar equipment. Due to their mobility, they could be located in the right area of the oceans, and a radar station, radio intelligence systems and a computer system would allow such ships to detect and track targets, primarily ballistic missiles.

There was a joke at the Baltic Shipyard: if an outsider was taken to the Ural and left in the interior, he would get out of there for several days. Indeed, the ship was not only huge, but also contained an extremely complex system of accommodating services and equipment, consisting of 1,500 rooms. The organization of installation work inside these labyrinths was a difficult managerial problem. They say that only the then director of the Baltic Shipyard, Viktor Shershnev, freely navigated inside the ship under construction. Since the large nuclear reconnaissance ship of project 1941 was an interesting target for the enemy’s anti-ship weapons, it was decided to equip it with a defensive weapon system. At the bow and stern, the project proposed to install one AK-176M artillery mount with an automatic gun of 76 mm caliber. To deal with high-speed targets like missiles, the Titan ships had to carry four AK-630 automatic guns of 30 mm caliber. The list of cannon armament of reconnaissance ships was completed by four Utes-M installations with twin NSV-12.7 heavy machine guns. It was also proposed to transport and use portable anti-aircraft missile systems and light anti-sabotage weapons on the ship. In the stern of the ship, a hangar and a take-off area for a helicopter, for example, a Ka-32, were provided. In addition to the name, the new ship received the tail number SSV-33. It is noteworthy that the letters "SSV" in the issue spoke of the ship's belonging to the communications vessels. However, the USSR Navy did not have such a class of ships, and all the available "SSVs" were actually scouts. A little later, it was planned to begin construction of the second ship of the Titan project, but these plans were not destined to come true. Moreover, there is every reason to believe that the fate of the second ship ended at the stage of considering a proposal for its construction. The construction of the Ural took about two years, after which sea trials began. The combined power plant with nuclear reactors and boilers caused a lot of criticism. In addition, there were proposals to use the elements of the power plant alternately: the ship had to leave the base and return to it with the help of boilers, and at a certain distance from the coast, switch to a nuclear power plant. Testing this idea also took some time.

In 1977, all ideas about a large reconnaissance ship for patrolling away from bases and tracking missile launches of a potential enemy were enshrined in the relevant Decree of the USSR Council of Ministers, which required the creation of such a ship. The document also spoke about the development of the Coral reconnaissance complex. The design of the ship itself, according to the Decree, was to be taken up by the Leningrad Central Design Bureau "Iceberg", and about two hundred different organizations led by the TsNPO "Vympel" were involved in the creation of the "Coral". The project received the digital index "1941" and the code "Titan".
According to some sources, when creating the 1941 project, the developments obtained during the creation of civilian courts were actively used. For example, it is often argued that the design of a certain ore carrier became the basis for the Titan's hull. There is no confirmation of this information, but it is worth considering that in the design and construction of other ships with advanced radio-electronic equipment - the ships of the measuring complex used in the space program - this approach was used. Regardless of their "origin", the ships of the 1941 project promised to become at least one of the largest domestic ships. Already in the early stages of design, the dimensions of the Titan were formed: a hull length of 265 meters, a width of 30 and a total height of about 70. The estimated displacement of the ship was at the level of 34-35 thousand tons. Thus, promising reconnaissance ships turned out to be larger and heavier than the latest heavy nuclear missile cruisers of Project 1144 Orlan.
The use of a nuclear power plant gave the new ship good performance. Despite the significant displacement and size, it could move at speeds up to 20-22 knots, and the cruising range was limited solely by food supplies. At the same time, according to calculations, a crew of 923 people (of which 233 officers and 144 midshipmen) could be away from the base for 180 days.
A large three-tiered superstructure with living quarters, control posts and target equipment was provided above the ship's hull. Four masts were placed on the roof of the superstructure with places for installing various antennas, as well as the main radar antenna under a spherical casing. The specially designed complex of radio reconnaissance and radar "Coral" was associated with several electronic systems, such as the radar MR-750 "Fregat-MA", MR-123 "Vympel", MR-212/201 "Vychegda-U", "Neman-P and Atoll. In addition, there was an optical-electronic complex "Swan" to monitor the launches. According to some reports, it was equipped with an optical system with a mirror diameter of about one and a half meters. With such parameters, the Lebed could detect the launch of an intercontinental missile from a distance of several hundred kilometers. To detect underwater objects, Project 1941 ships were to be equipped with MGK-335M Argun and MG-747 Amulet sonar stations. Information processing, in accordance with the project, was to be handled by a special computer complex with two computers of the Elbrus type and several EC-1046s. Probably, other systems were also provided on the ships, but the exact composition of the special equipment of the Titan project is still not known.

It is worth noting that during the tests of the Ural ship, many flaws and malfunctions were revealed. Some problems have arisen with nuclear power plant systems.
Do not forget that the "Ural" was a nuclear-powered ship. The Iceberg Central Design Bureau designed it for its classic nuclear power plant used on icebreakers, adding only some additional redundancy characteristic of military products. Things didn't always go smoothly. During the launch of one of the two reactors of the OK-900 type, it turned out that one of the grids used to shut it down does not operate in self-propelled mode, that is, in the event of an accident, it could not automatically shut down the reactor, as happened, for example, during the Kursk disaster. Then it was decided to dismantle the nuclear reactor right at the Baltic Plant, which is located on Vasilyevsky Island, within the historical center of Leningrad. In addition, it was 1987, and the memory of the Chernobyl nightmare was still very fresh. It is not surprising that the decision to dismantle the reactor was not easy and was taken at the highest level. The disassembly was carried out by hydraulic fracturing: water was supplied into the reactor under high pressure, and its cover was torn off the body in stepwise movements. Fortunately, since the reactor had not yet reached MCU (minimum controllable power), the radiation from it was small. The opened reactor was examined by representatives of the design organization - the Gorky Design Bureau (now OJSC Afrikantov OKBM), but the cause of the defect was not found. Despite the most difficult conditions for this operation and its technological complexity, the grate did not work in self-propelled mode - it could only be lowered by force, with the help of an engine. In the end, it was decided to allow the ship to go to sea with this defect, even if it somewhat reduced the nuclear safety of the Ural.
Another story happened when the Ural was on the Kronstadt roadstead: the circulation pump of one of the reactors suddenly failed. The tests were in full swing, many representatives of subcontractors were present at the plant, and the management of the Baltic Shipyard feared, not without reason, that if the ship arrived in Leningrad with an emergency nuclear installation, then the same subcontractors would refuse to work at the Ural. And then the decision was born to change the circulation pump right on the roads. Leningrad shipbuilders coped with this task, although it was incredibly difficult to replace an eight-ton assembly during sea rolling. After this incident, no serious “nuclear” troubles happened to the Ural.
But most of all, the constant breakdowns of the computer complex annoyed me. There was too much of the latest avionics on board the new reconnaissance ship for everything to work smoothly. Correcting design flaws and identifying problems took a lot of time. As a result, the new ship SSV-33 "Ural" became part of the Navy only at the very end of December 1988.
When the "Ural" entered the test, about one and a half thousand representatives of allied enterprises were added to the 930 permanent crew members, each of which "spud" its own site. In cabins designed for three or four people, seven or eight slept, and the galley could not cope with the preparation of food for this human anthill.

In the photo "Ural" and the future "Nakhimov"

The ship had a construction (permanent) roll - 2 degrees to the port side, which was due to a more developed superstructure on the port side. During the transition of the ship to the place of deployment and its stay in Strelok Bay before the fire in 1990, this roll was compensated by the ship's systems (keel and roll sensors), and the hull deflection sensors showed a normal state.
* Due to its unique design, the Ural was the only three-masted warship in the world (except for training sailing ships that are part of many navies).
* The complex of reconnaissance equipment of the ship included a "camera" with a lens diameter of about 1.5 meters.

On January 6, 1989, the naval ensign was raised on the ship. The ship received tail number SSV-33.
In 1989, an act of state acceptance of the ship was signed and its transfer to the home port of Vladivostok began.
In the campaign, the reconnaissance ship was secretly accompanied by our multi-purpose nuclear submarine. And also - a lot of aircraft and ships of the NATO countries, which were at a loss: why do the Russians need this ocean giant with space antennas?
On the way to the Pacific base, the Ural stopped for a few days at the port of Cam Ranh, where the Soviet naval base was then located. They say that during the stay in the Vietnamese port, the turtle suffered from the vigilance of the guards: they mistook it for a saboteur and fired from the Rain anti-amphibious complex. Probably, it was during the voyage across three oceans (Atlantic, Indian and Pacific) that an unofficial one was added to the official decoding of the “CER” index: “Special sleeping car”, and the ship also acquired the nickname “cabin carrier”. Despite the large number of crew, the dimensions of the ship made it possible to provide sailors with good living conditions. In addition to comfortable cabins and cockpits, the Urals had a full-fledged medical unit, a smoking room, a gym, two saunas with showers, a swimming pool and even a cinema hall. Thus, the ship had everything to give the crew not only comfortable living conditions, but also to provide them with a "cultural program".
At the same time, the large dimensions of the Ural played a cruel joke on him. Like several large cruisers of the Pacific Fleet, most of the time she was not at the pier, but on barrels. Nevertheless, even in such conditions, he was able to become the flagship of the 38th brigade of reconnaissance ships of the Pacific Fleet. It is noteworthy that the SSV-33 could perform some reconnaissance missions while in port or on barrels. The potential of reconnaissance systems made it possible to "see" all the necessary things and events within a radius of several hundred kilometers. There is evidence that, while in Strelok Bay, the Ural intercepted the communications of American and Japanese ships located in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. However, the main task of the ship remained long-distance cruises and tracking missile launches.
In the second half of the eighties, transformations began in the Soviet Union, which eventually led to the disintegration of the country. They affected the state of the navy in general and the Urals in particular. The fleet could no longer afford the full maintenance and operation of a sophisticated reconnaissance ship. It was proposed to divide the costs between the Navy and air defense / missile defense. However, all these proposals remained at the level of conversations. Probably, it was the lack of funding that ultimately caused the first troubles of the ship. Another prerequisite for the further sad fate of the Ural is sometimes called the decision to release former students from military service, because of which the ship's crew lost a lot of young and competent specialists.

The chief designer of Ural, Arkharov M.A., received a medal and the title of Hero of Socialist Labor for this unique project. In addition, being a civilian, he received the military rank of "rear admiral"

In mid-1990, a fire broke out on the SSV-33 Ural ship. Presumably, as a result of a short circuit, cable routes caught fire. The fire spread to the units of the aft engine room. The fire was extinguished, but the stern machine fell into disrepair. There was no money for its repair. After this incident, there was no longer any talk of any long-distance campaigns. A little more than a year later, another misfortune happened: the bow engine room burned down, on which, after the previous fire, the entire burden of providing the ship with electricity fell. Now "Ural" has lost the ability to perform any tasks. The reactors were shut down, and vital systems were powered by emergency diesel generators.
In addition to fires on board, the Ural was exposed to other dangers. So, in 1990 there was a notorious fire in the main ammunition of the Pacific Fleet. SSV-33 at that time was literally a couple of kilometers from the warehouses, but the crews of the ship and the tug that came to the rescue were able to take it to a safe distance. In the autumn of 1991, the Ural, damaged by fire, fell off the barrel during a storm and began to drift. It was possible to return the immobilized ship to its place only after a few hours.
Throughout the nineties, the large nuclear reconnaissance ship SSV-33 "Ural" stood on barrels, and then at the pier in Strelok Bay, and waited for its fate. Due to financial problems and the lack of any prospects, the crew of the ship was constantly reduced. Over time, SSV-33 was made a floating barracks. The unique reconnaissance ship performed such "duties" for several years. The fate of the Ural was decided at the beginning of the 2000s. Based on the results of a survey of the structure and equipment, as well as an analysis of the prospects, the Navy command decided not to restore the ship. The repair would have been too expensive, and the equipment of the late eighties no longer had high prospects. Therefore, approximately in 2001, the ship SSV-33 was laid up at the pier in Abrek Bay (Strelok Bay). Ironically, next to the "Ural" was a heavy nuclear missile cruiser "Admiral Lazarev" (formerly "Frunze"), belonging to the project 1144 "Orlan". Developments on this project were actively used in the creation of a reconnaissance ship.
The first commander of the Ural, Captain 1st Rank Ilya Keshkov, turned to Russian President Boris Yeltsin for help, but received no answer.

In 2008, a tender was held, after which the neighbors on the pier were "separated". The cruiser remained in place, where it still stands, and the Ural was towed to the city of Bolshoy Kamen, to the Zvezda plant. According to reports, the dismantling of the ship has not yet begun or is proceeding at an extremely low pace. The leaders of Rosatom spoke about the possible use of the units of the SSV-33 ship for the repair of other ships with nuclear power plants. At that time, the Ural itself was waiting for the start of dismantling and cutting.
In conclusion, it should be said that a couple of years after the decision to decommission the Ural finally - in December 2004 - the first large reconnaissance ship of project 18280 "Yuri Ivanov" was laid down at the Severnaya Verf plant (St. composition of the Northern Fleet at the end of 2014). The second ship of this type "Ivan Khurs" was laid down. There is hope that the new ships, despite their smaller size compared to the 1941 project, will be able to at least partially replace the decommissioned Ural.