Soviet Cold War Guided Missile Cruisers: (New Vanguard)

A fully illustrated study of the Soviet Navy’s biggest and most powerful surface combatants of the Cold War.

Heavily armed and formidable, guided missile cruisers formed the core of the Soviet Navy during the Cold War. From the last class of conventional Sverdlov-class cruisers through to increasingly complex and formidable missile cruisers, these ships ensured that NATO took the Soviet naval threat seriously.

Soviet Cold War Guided Missile Cruisers covers all classes of these impressive warships, from the early Sverdlov through the Kynda, Kresta, Kara and Slava to the enormous Kirov classes. Together, these vessels marked the apogee of Soviet naval technology and capability and they remain today the largest non-aircraft carrier warships built since 1945.

Containing material previously only available in Russian and fully researched from specialist defence journals, this comprehensive volume examines the design, development, and intended role of these impressive, hi-tech warships, and recounts their dramatic operational history as NATO and Soviet warships faced off against each other during the long Cold War at sea.

Introduction
Strategic and operational context
Sverdlov class (Project 68bis, Project 70E)
Grosnyy class (‘Kynda’/Project 58)
Admiral Zozulya class (‘Kresta I’/Project 1134)
Kronstadt class (‘Kresta II’/Project 1134A)
Nikolayev class (‘Kara’/Project 1134B)
Slava class (Project 1164) /Kirov class (Project 1144)
Operational service: tactics and confrontations
Bibliography
Index

Edward Hampshire is a historian at the Naval Historical Branch of the Ministry of Defence. He has lectured at the Joint Services Command and Staff College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and worked for ten years at the United Kingdom National Archives. He has written on the Cold War at sea, British defence policy and intelligence history, and his publications include From East of Suez to Eastern Atlantic, British Naval Policy 1964-70 and (co-authored) British Intelligence: Secrets, Spies and Sources.

Paul Wright has painted ships of all kinds for most of his career, specializing in steel and steam warships from the late 19th century to the present day. Paul’s art has illustrated the works of Patrick O’Brian, Dudley Pope and C.S. Forester amongst others, and hangs in many corporate and private collections all over the world. A Member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists, Paul lives and works in Surrey.