A heavy nuclear-powered cruiser (TAKR), the fourth Kirov Class battle cruiser of the Russian Navy, originally named Yuriy Andropov (Юрий Андропов). It is the flagship of the Northern Fleet.
Because of economic problems both before and after the fall of the Soviet Union, work on her was severely postponed. It was not commissioned until 1996, ten years after the construction started. She had now been renamed Pyotr Velikiy, Russian for Peter The Great.
After completing her acceptance trials in November 1996, she was transferred to the Northern Fleet at Severomorsk and becoming the flagship of the Northern Fleet.
In August 2000 Pyotr Velikiy was in the Barents Sea involved in the largest naval training exercise since the fall of the Soviet Union. She was to be the designated target of the Oscar-II Class submarine K-141 Kursk, and was conducting evasive maneuvers when communication with Kursk was lost, the submarine apparently having suffered a catastrophic torpedo detonation with all hands lost. Pyotr Velikiy guarded the area where the submarine sank during the subsequent salvage operation in 2001.
In March, 2004, Russian Navy chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov declared the Pyotr Velikiy unfit for service due to problems with the ship's engineering maintenance.On April 19, 2004, she was docked in the floating drydock PD-50 for painting of the underside of the hull, repairs and examination of the steering system. The repairs were completed later that year, and she was carrying out missions again by August. Pyotr Velikiy has been known to carry two Pennant Number during her service; "183" and currently "099".
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(Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org)
