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On October 15th 2016, the 43,000 ton Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuzentsov slipped out of the Kola Bay fjord in the Barents Sea. Escorted by a small flotilla of warships including the powerful Pyotr Velikiy battlecruiser, the carrier sailed through the North Sea and down the English Channel in to the Atlantic before rounding the Iberian Peninsula and entering the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. 

A month after leaving Kola Bay, aircraft of the Kuznetsov began operations against Islamic State and Al-Nusra terrorist groups in Syria in support of the Assad government. It was the first time a Russian carrier group had undertaken a combat deployment and was the end of a long, complex and at times troubled road undertaken by Moscow to produce a carrier force which was hoped would one day challenge the dominance of the United States Navy; a dream that offered great promise but as of 2023 sees one solitary carrier rusting and leaking in a Russian shipyard waiting for the government to release funds to finish repairs to make it operational again. This is the story of the Soviet Navy’s carrier program, it’s origins, it’s highs, it’s lows and the fruits it bore for Russia and others in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Welcome to Wars of the World.

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