Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier

The Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier, Soviet designation Project 1143.5, is a class of conventionally-powered aircraft carriers currently operated by the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and also by the Russian Navy until recently. Originally designed for the Soviet Navy, the Kuznetsov-class uses a Short Take-Off but Arrested Recovery (STOBAR) system combining a ski-jump and arresting gears for the launch and recovery of high-performance jet aircraft, representing a major advance in Soviet/Russian naval aviation over the previous Kiev-class, which did not have full-length flight deck and could only launch VSTOL aircraft. The official classification for the ship class by the Soviet Union and Russian Federation is "heavy aircraft-carrying cruiser", which permits the ships to transit the Turkish Straits without violating the Montreux Convention.
Due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in late 1991, the three Kuznetsov-class ships were built over a protracted period of almost four decades. Two ships were originally laid down at the Nikolayev South Shipyard in the Ukrainian SSR, to be followed by the Ulyanovsk-class nuclear-powered supercarriers. Only the lead ship Admiral...