Soviet aircraft carrier Minsk
{{Short description|1978 Kiev-class aircraft carrier}}
| {{Infobox ship begin
}} {{Infobox ship image | Ship image = Minsk aircraft carrier.jpg | Ship caption = Minsk in 1983 }} {{Infobox ship career | Hide header = | Ship country = Russia | Ship flag = {{shipboxflag|Soviet Union|naval}} {{shipboxflag|Russia|navy-1992}} | Ship name = Minsk | Ship namesake = City of Minsk | Ship owner = | Ship operator = | Ship registry = | Ship route = | Ship ordered = | Ship awarded = | Ship builder = Chernomorskiy yard, Mykolayiv | Ship original cost = | Ship yard number = | Ship way number = | Ship laid down = 28 December 1972 | Ship launched = 30 September 1975 | Ship sponsor = | Ship christened = | Ship completed = | Ship acquired = | Ship commissioned = 27 September 1978 | Ship recommissioned = | Ship decommissioned = 30 June 1993 | Ship maiden voyage = | Ship in service = | Ship out of service = | Ship renamed = | Ship reclassified = | Ship refit = | Ship struck = | Ship reinstated = | Ship homeport = | Ship identification = | Ship motto = | Ship nickname = | Ship honours = | Ship captured = | Ship fate = | Ship status = Sold to China in 1995; sold again and placed in Naval museum in Jiangsu, China since 2016. Severely damaged by fire on 16 August 2024 | Ship notes = | Ship badge = }} {{Infobox ship characteristics | Hide header = | Header caption = | Ship class = {{sclass|Kiev|aircraft carrier|0}} aircraft cruiser | Ship type = | Ship tonnage = | Ship displacement = *30,535 tons (standard) | Ship length = {{convert|273|m|abbr=on}} overall | Ship beam = *{{convert|49.2|m|abbr=on}} o/a
| Ship height = | Ship draught = {{convert|8.94|m|abbr=on}} | Ship decks = | Ship deck clearance = | Ship propulsion = 4 shaft geared steam turbines, 140,000 shp | Ship speed = {{convert|32|kn|km/h|0}} | Ship range = | Ship endurance = {{convert|13500|nmi|km |
| 1}} at {{convert|18|kn|km/h|0}}
| Ship test depth = | Ship boats = | Ship capacity = | Ship troops = | Ship complement = | Ship crew = | Ship time to activate = | Ship sensors = | Ship EW = | Ship armament = {{unbulleted list|4 × twin SS-N-12 Sandbox SSM launchers (8 missiles)| 2 × twin SA-N-3 Shtorm SAM launchers (72 missiles)| 2 × twin SA-N-4 Gecko SAM launchers (40 missiles)| 2 × twin 76 mm guns| 8 × AK-630 30 mm CIWS | 10 × 533 mm torpedo tubes | 1 × twin SUW-N-1 ASW rocket launcher (16 nuclear-tipped rockets) | 2 × RBU-6000 anti-submarine rocket launchers}} | Ship armour = | Ship aircraft = *16 Yak-38M fighter aircraft
| Ship aircraft facilities = | Ship notes = }} |
Minsk ({{langx|ru|Минск}}) is an aircraft carrier (heavy aircraft cruiser in Russian classification){{efn|Due to restrictions imposed by the Montreux Convention limiting the tonnage of aircraft carriers traveling through the Bosporus, all Soviet and Russian aircraft carriers are named as aircraft carrying cruisers. In the case of Minsk, this accurately reflects the ship's mission and weapons fit.}} that served the Soviet Navy and the Russian Navy from 1978 to 1994. She was the second {{sclass|Kiev|aircraft carrier|0}} vessel to be built.
From 2000 to 2016 she was a theme park known as Minsk World in Shatoujiao, Yantian, Shenzhen, China.
In April 2016, Minsk was towed to Jiangsu for exhibition. On 16 August 2024, she was burnt in a fire in Nantong, Jiangsu province.
History
=Russian service=
{{stack|{{multiple image|total_width=400
|image1=USS Elliot (DD-967) and Soviet carrier Minsk underway in the Arabian Sea, in 1979.jpg
|caption1=Minsk being shadowed by the US destroyer {{USS|Elliot|DD-967|6}} during her 1979 Pacific cruise
|image2=Aircraft carrier "Minsk" in 1986 (3).jpeg
|caption2=Kamov Ka-25 'Hormone' helicopters and Yakovlev Yak-38 'Forger' VTOL strike fighters parked on the flight deck of Minsk in 1986
}}}}
Named after the capital city of Belarus, Minsk was laid down in 1972, launched on 30 September 1975, completed on 27 September 1978.
Minsk operated with the Pacific Fleet. Shortly after the Sino-Vietnamese War of 1979, Minsk was deployed to the South China Sea, making a port of call at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, in September 1980. She visited Vietnam again in 1982 during her second deployment before sailing onto the Indian Ocean.{{Cite journal |jstor=27908494 |title=Soviet Strategic Interests in Southeast Asia |year=1984 |journal=Southeast Asian Affairs |pages=36–37 |publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies |last1=Mediansky |first1=F. A. }} In 1984, Minsk, the {{sclass|Ivan Rogov|landing ship|0}} landing ship Aleksandr Nikolayev, and Vietnam forces conducted the Soviet Navy's first amphibious landing in Vietnam.{{Cite journal|last=Acharya|first=Amitav|jstor=25797972|title=The United States Versus the USSR in the Pacific: Trends in the Military Balance |journal=Contemporary Southeast Asia|publisher=Institute of Southeast Asian Studies|volume=9|issue=4|date=March 1988|page=287}}
Soviet cosmonaut Oleg Grigoriyevich Kononenko survived an aircraft ejection on the Minsk in 1979. On September 8, 1980, he was killed in the crash of a Yakovlev Yak-38 VTOL fighter on the Minsk.{{cite web |url=http://www.astronaut.ru/as_rusia/lii/text/kononenko.htm |title=Олег Григорьевич Кононенко |website=astronaut.ru |access-date=July 25, 2020}}
The carrier was retired, and decommissioned on 30 June 1993, as a result of a major accident (details not known) which required the facilities at the Chernomorskiy yard, in Mykolayiv, located in the newly independent Ukraine (the reasons for not attempting a repair are not known).
=Shenzhen Minsk World, China=
{{main|Minsk World}}
File:Panorama of the Soviet Aircraft Carrier Minsk at Minsk World, Shenzhen, China.jpg
In 1995 Minsk was sold for scrap to a South Korean company. Due to protests from South Korean environmentalists, the ship was resold to the Chinese state-owned Guangdong Ship Dismantling Company. The ship was again saved from the scrapyard when a group of Chinese video-game arcade owners formed the Shenzhen Minsk Investment Company to buy the ship for $4.3 million.{{cite news|last1=Laris|first1=Michael|title=China's First Aircraft Carrier Anchors in 'Fun Zone'|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/01/25/chinas-first-aircraft-carrier-anchors-in-fun-zone/66c78e76-fe65-4436-b4f0-447b66d28829/|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=25 January 1999}}
Minsk became the centerpiece of a military theme park in Yantian district, Shatoujiao (沙头角) sub-district, Shenzhen called Minsk World. However, the Shenzhen Minsk company went bankrupt in 2006, and the carrier was put up for auction on 22 March 2006. On 31 May 2006, the carrier was sold in Shenzhen for 128 million RMB to CITIC Shenzhen.{{cn|date=April 2023}}
The ship was again sold to Dalian Yongjia Group, a real estate company in Dalian in North China, on 1 January 2013.{{cite news|last1=Zhang|first1=Yang|title=Minsk carrier staying in Shenzhen|url=http://szdaily.sznews.com/html/2013-02/01/content_2370444.htm|accessdate=16 April 2016|publisher=Shenzhen Daily|date=2013-02-01|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160601030336/http://szdaily.sznews.com/html/2013-02/01/content_2370444.htm|archive-date=1 June 2016}} On 3 April 2016, Chinese news reported the aircraft carrier had been towed to a new destination, Zhoushan for refit,{{cite web |url=http://news.163.com/photoview/00AP0001/114937.html?from=ph_ss#p=BJNDPPI200AP0001 |script-title=zh:明斯克航母拖离深圳 逾千市民雨中拍照送行 |language=zh |date=3 April 2016 |accessdate=3 April 2016}} because of the decline of the number of tourists after 2006.
After the refit is completed, the ship is to be taken to Nantong on the Yangtse River in Jiangsu Province and moored to the west of Sutong Yangtze River Bridge as part of a new theme park which was planned to open in 2017.{{cite news|last1=Han|first1=Ximin|title=Soviet-era ship leaves Shenzhen|url=http://www1.szdaily.com/content/2016-04/04/content_12991857.htm|accessdate=16 April 2016|publisher=Shenzhen Daily|date=4 April 2016|url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427201625/http://www1.szdaily.com/content/2016-04/04/content_12991857.htm|archive-date=27 April 2016}}{{cite news|title=中国首艘航母明斯克号起锚驶向江苏 4月下旬抵达|url=http://js.qq.com/a/20160404/017826.htm|accessdate=4 April 2016|publisher=扬子晚报网|date=2016-04-04|archive-date=2016-04-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413033836/http://js.qq.com/a/20160404/017826.htm|url-status=dead}} As of 2018, the project is delayed.{{cite news |title=陸打造軍事迪士尼 落戶南通 |url=https://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E9%99%B8%E6%89%93%E9%80%A0%E8%BB%8D%E4%BA%8B%E8%BF%AA%E5%A3%AB%E5%B0%BC-%E8%90%BD%E6%88%B6%E5%8D%97%E9%80%9A-215008246--finance.html |accessdate=19 December 2018 |agency=chinatimes.com/ |date=7 December 2018}}
On 16 August 2024, the ship caught fire during further refit work in Nantong. Although the fire could be extinguished, the future of the ship as a centerpiece of another theme park became uncertain.[https://edition.cnn.com/2024/08/19/china/old-soviet-aircraft-carrier-minsk-fire-china-intl-hnk-ml Old aircraft carrier, once part of mighty Soviet fleet, burns in Chinese lagoon], CNN, 19 August 2024.{{cite web |url=https://www.guancha.cn/politics/2024_08_16_745094.shtml |script-title=zh:南通消防：长江边一废旧航母在拆除改造时发生火灾，无人员伤亡 |language=zh |date=16 August 2024 |accessdate=16 August 2024}}{{Cite web |date=2024-08-17 |title=Fire breaks out in China on former Soviet aircraft carrier Minsk |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/military/article/3274877/fire-breaks-out-china-former-soviet-aircraft-carrier-minsk |access-date=2024-08-17 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}
See also
References
{{Notelist}}{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}
External links
{{Commons category|Minsk (ship, 1975)}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20080207073921/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-03/22/content_4333012.htm "Bids fall short for ex-Soviet aircraft carrier"]
- [http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/russia/aircraft_carriers/minsk/minsk_page_1.htm MaritimeQuest Minsk pages]
- [https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&g=Severodvinsk&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=22.553663,114.237009&spn=0.002928,0.005686&z=18 Satellite Photo of Minsk in the military theme park in Shenzhen from Google Maps]
- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMsppyjW3rA Exploring Minsk interior] (2023)
{{Kiev class aircraft carrier}}
{{2024 shipwrecks}}
{{coord|31|48|14.25|N|120|59|25.41|E|region:CN-44_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki|display=title}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minsk}}
Category:Kiev-class aircraft carriers
Category:Ships built at the Black Sea Shipyard
Category:Cold War aircraft carriers of the Soviet Union
Category:Museum ships in China