Kirov
Contents
Description
The Pr.26, Kirov, 1941 was the lead ship of the Kirov-class light cruisers built in the 1930s. The Kirovs were derived from the Italian Condottieri-class cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli, as well as being designed in cooperation with Ansaldo and also bought plans for machinery and hull. Kirov was laid down on 22nd October 1935 and commissioned on 23rd September 1938. During the Winter War, she tried to bombard Finnish coastal batteries, but near misses from them damaged her. In August 1941, she was flagship of the naval force evacuating Tallinn. After the blockade of Leningrad, she conducted fire support and shore bombardment for the defenders of Leningrad from Kronshtadt. In an air raid on 4th April 1942, she was hit by three bombs that killed 86 sailors. After two months of repair, she returned to service, now with her catapult removed and her anti-air weaponry strengthened. She saw no further action in WWII after the blockade of Leningrad was lifted. On 2nd August 1961, she was reclassified as a training cruiser and sold for scrap on 22nd February 1974. Two of her main gun turrets are installed in Saint Petersburg as a memorial.
Kirov was introduced in Update 1.87 "Locked On". Her armour protection makes her vulnerable even to destroyer weapons at ranges closer than 10 km, the forward magazine is located on the waterline being protected by only 50 mm of belt armour which can lead to fatal explosion when hit. Kirov also does not possess torpedo bulges, making any torpedo hits fatal.
General info
Survivability and armour
The Kirov is a rather odd ship, while she only has 50 mm of citadel armour with no anti-fragmentation armour, the placement of her critical modules such as her engines, transmissions, and main ammo racks were all located inside her citadel and sitting below the waterline. This leaves most of her upper hull empty and can therefore take a good amount of damage from AP or SAP shells. However, due to the lack of armour elsewhere, the Kirov is very vulnerable against HE shells, as they can quickly deplete her relatively low crew size.
Mobility
Being such a large ship with relatively low displacement, the Kirov's top speed is quite good. Although her excessive hull length will worsen her traverse speed.
| Mobility Characteristics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Game Mode | Upgrade Status | Maximum Speed (km/h) | |
| Forward | Reverse | ||
| AB | |||
| Upgraded | 78 | 23 | |
| RB/SB | |||
| Upgraded | 67 | 19 | |
Modifications and economy
| Seakeeping | Unsinkability | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armament
Primary armament
Kirov has 9 x 180 mm/57 (7.1") B-1-P Pattern 1932 naval cannons for her main armament, arranged in triple turrets mounted A-Bs-X. This gives Kirov a heavy punch, but her overall firepower is lacking compared to other cruisers at her BR. With a fire rate of 5 rounds/minute, she has the slowest reload among the BR 5.7 cruisers (not counting Furutaka's 20.3 cm guns).
Kirov uses the OF-32 HE shell as default, with the ability to unlock the B-32 AP shell, the PB-32 SAPCBC shell as well as the ZS-32 HE-DF shell. A major advantage that Kirov has is the astounding 920 m/s muzzle velocity of all her shells, meaning that leading targets will not be as difficult. The SAPCBC shell sacrifices some of the armour penetrative abilities of the AP shell, but it is loaded with 7 kg of TNT explosive filler.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 1,000 m | 2,500 m | 5,000 m | 7,500 m | 10,000 m | 15,000 m | ||
| OF-32 | HE | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 | 60 |
| B-32 | APCBC | 424 | 386 | 331 | 285 | 246 | 191 |
| PB-32 | SAPCBC | 206 | 188 | 161 | 138 | 120 | 93 |
| ZS-32 | HE-TF | 58 | 58 | 58 | 58 | 58 | 58 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (s) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| OF-32 | HE | 920 | 97.5 | 0 | 0.1 | 7.9 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| B-32 | APCBC | 920 | 97.5 | 0.01 | 9 | 2.49 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
| PB-32 | SAPCBC | 920 | 97.5 | 0.01 | 9 | 7 | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
| ZS-32 | HE-TF | 920 | 97.5 | 0 | 0.1 | 7.52 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
Secondary armament
The Kirov has a secondary armament of 6 x 100 mm/56 (3.9") B-34 Pattern 1940 cannons arranged evenly on either side of the after smoke funnel. This is a rather light secondary battery, but they are versatile due to their clear angles of fire and ammunition selection.
These guns have access to the ZS-56 HE-DF shell as default and the ZS-56R HE-VT shell is able to be researched.
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 100 m | 1,000 m | 2,000 m | 3,000 m | 4,000 m | 5,000 m | ||
| F-56 HE | HE | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| ZS-56 HE | HE-TF | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |
| ZS-56R HE-VT | HE-VT | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| F-56 HE | HE | 900 | 15.8 | 0 | 0.1 | 1.93 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| ZS-56 HE | HE-TF | 900 | 15.6 | 0 | 0.1 | 1.93 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Proximity-fused shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Arming distance (m) |
Trigger radius (m) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| ZS-56R HE-VT | HE-VT | 900 | 15.9 | 0 | 0.1 | 270 | 15 | 1.23 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |
Anti-aircraft armament
For anti-aircraft armament, Kirov has 7 x 45 mm/46 21-K cannons as well as 3 x DShK machine guns. The 45 mm cannons are not very effective against aircraft as they only have a standard HE shell with no special fuze, requiring a direct hit on an aircraft to deal damage. They serve better as anti-torpedo boat guns due to their rapid-fire ability and centralized arrangement. The DShK machine guns will be mostly for harassment purposes and to catch unaware planes.
Additional armament
Kirov is equipped with 2 x triple torpedo launchers firing the 53-39 torpedo. The base setting for these is a range of 4,000 m with a high speed of 51 knots. Using the torpedo mode upgrade, they can be adjusted to 10,000 m range at a reduced speed of 34 knots. Due to the location of the launchers being low and behind raised structure, the ship is not able to launch torpedoes towards the front, and must turn to release weapons.
Scout plane
Located amidships is a catapult with one Beriev Be-2 (aka KOR-1) scout plane which provides unique offensive and defensive abilities, expanding tactical options. Ship-launched scout planes fly just like regular tree units but lack munition choices and cockpit views. Alongside the typical abilities of strafing with its two light machine guns, dropping 2 x 50 kg bombs, and capping zones, the KOR-1 and other scout planes have the added ability to lay down smoke cover (up to 3 times). Captains will be wise to remember to utilise the aircraft and consider when best to use it, for example to cap a point early or late in the match, to create a smoke screen to stymie enemy bombardment and repair, to attack enemy units directly, or perhaps something completely new!
Usage in battles
Describe the technique of using this ship, the characteristics of her use in a team and tips on strategy. Abstain from writing an entire guide – don't try to provide a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought. Talk about the most dangerous opponents for this vehicle and provide recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of playing with this vehicle in various modes (AB, RB, SB).
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Exceptional damage output, besting almost all of the comparable foreign light cruisers and most of the heavy cruisers
- Access to various types of shells, including SAP, APCBC and even HE-VT shells for secondaries
- Decent medium and long-range anti-air defense
- Above average mobility
- Relatively good torpedoes
- Access to the hydroplane
Cons:
- Low crew count and a minimal armor protection
- Numerous exposed stations make it prone to HE damage. Relatively thin armor makes it possible to destroy turrets even with a 200 mm / 8-inch HE rounds.
- Very large, can be easily targeted
- Auxiliary ammunition storage located above the water line
- Poor short-range anti-air defence
History
Following the devastation of the Russian Civil War, the remaining industry available to the newly formed Soviet Union was everything but capable of designing large, new warships. Aware of this, the Soviet Union sought help from abroad, in order to be able to commit to the planned expansion of its navy.
In the end, help came from the Italian shipbuilders, which sold the blueprints for the Condottieri C light cruiser as well as the necessary machinery to the Soviets. Engineers further modified the design to suit Soviet needs, which included the fitting of new triple turrets, among other constructional changes. The project was approved in November 1934 as the Project 26.
Plans were made to construct a total of six Project 26 cruisers, which would be built in pairs and would receive various improvements over the respective previous pair. The Kirov, as the lead and prototype ship of the class, was laid down for construction in October 1935, after a minor delay.
The Kirov was launched in late 1936 and joined the Baltic Fleet in September 1938. After briefly taking part in the Winter War, Kirov quickly became trapped in the waters between Kronstadt and Leningrad by German minefields, following the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.
The warship would remain stationed in those waters for the better part of the war, providing gunfire support for the besieged defenders of Leningrad. Shortly after the end of WW2, Kirov was severely damaged by a German seamine. Following repairs, the ship was completely overhauled in the late 1940s and was later reclassified as a training ship in the early 1960s. In February 1974 however, Kirov was eventually sold for scrap, marking the end of its close to four decade long service.
- From Devblog
Media
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See also
- Related development
External links
| Baltic Shipyard (Балтийский завод) | |
|---|---|
| Light Cruisers | |
| Svetlana-class | Krasny Krym* |
| Project 26/26bis | Kirov · Maxim Gorky |
| Project 68 | Chapayev |
| Project 68bis | Sverdlov |
| Battlecruisers | |
| Izmail-class | Izmail |
| Battleships | |
| Sevastopol-class | Marat · Parizhskaya Kommuna |
| *Laid down at the Russian-Baltic shipyard in Tallinn | |
| USSR light cruisers | |
|---|---|
| Imperial Russia | |
| Svetlana-class | Krasny Krym* · Krasny Kavkaz* |
| * Laid down by Imperial Russian Navy; Finished and renamed by the USSR | |
| Project | Soviet Union |
| Pr.26 | Kirov · Voroshilov · Maxim Gorky |
| Pr.68 | Chapayev · Zheleznyakov |
| Pr.68-bis | Sverdlov · Mikhail Kutuzov |
| Pr.68-bis-ZiF | Shcherbakov |
| Lend-Lease | USA |
| Omaha-class | Murmansk |
| Trophies | Italy |
| Condottieri-class | Kerch |
