MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Trials on the runway ski-jump of Russia’s refitted flagship heavy aircraft-carrying missile cruiser, the Admiral Flota Sovetskogo Soyuza Kuznetsov, commonly called the Admiral Kuznetsov, will begin after July 1, Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.
“The ship will be ready for trials by July 1, 2016, for planes and helicopters that will be based on the cruiser,” Shoigu said during a Defense Ministry meeting.
The Admiral Kuznetsov is Russia’s only aircraft cruiser, sometimes designated by the West as an aircraft carrier, and was commissioned into the Navy on December 25, 1990.
