A Russian spy ship turned ghost ship

I’ve always been intrigued by the history of Russian ships.  With my own copy of Norman Polmar’s Guide to the Soviet Navy, I often thumb through the pages and wonder where the once grand ships are today.  In a rare find, here is the story to one of the most interesting ships in the old Soviet fleet.

The SSV-33 Ural is towed to a mooring sometime in 2008. Note the deteriorated forward radar dome.

The SSV-33 was supposed to be the most technically advanced ship in the fleet. Powered by a two-reactor, combined nuclear-oil propulsion plant, the ship was designed for a compliment of nearly 1000 sailors.  She was also one of the few Soviet ships fitted with a phased array radar system.

The SSV-33 rusting away. Photo taken sometime in 2007.

This intimidating ship never served the grand role she was designed to.  Scientists quickly discovered her advanced computers didn’t work correctly, engineers were troubled with reactor cooling system problems.  The ship, useless without its computers and propulsion system quickly became a floating barracks, and slowly began to waste away.  Unable to be used to track space objects, U.S. missile tests, and intercept electronic communications; machinery and equipment deteriorated due to lack of maintenance.  Russian officials reportedly looked at using the ship as a floating power plant, however it appears that never got off the ground.

A starboard beam view of the Soviet naval auxiliary Kapusta class nuclear-powered missile range ship SSV-33 underway. (Department of Defense, 1988)

The Russian Navy Blog has a lot of detail on the ship and her sad fate today.  It appears scrapping the ship is complicated due to the two large reactors on board.  I can only imagine what it would be like to walk the abandoned passageways of this huge abandoned ship.