The Admiral Kuznetsov is Russia's sole aircraft carrier, commissioned by the Soviet Navy on 20 January 1991 and named for Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Nikolai Kuznetsov, a senior Soviet naval commander of the Second World War era. Displacing up to 58,600 tonnes at full load, it carries around 26 fixed-wing aircraft and 24 helicopters, principally Su-33 and MiG-29K fighters alongside Kamov helicopters for anti-submarine and search-and-rescue duties. The carrier made its first Mediterranean deployment between December 1995 and March 1996, took part in the 2000 rescue operation for the sunken submarine Kursk, and saw its only combat use in November 2016, when its aircraft flew 420 combat missions against targets in Syria; it has remained out of service since March 2017 undergoing an extended modernization that, as of early 2025, had not yet returned it to operational status.
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