China Eyes Ukrainian Slava-Class Cruiser

Sea Power, May 2004

Ukrainian Defense Minster Oleksandr Olinyk announced March 2 that the Slavaclass cruiser Ukraina will be offered for sale on the international market. he said China most likely will be the buyer of the warship, which, despite lengthy construction delays, is 96 percent complete.

China is in the midst of procuring large, multipurpose surface combatants from Russia, such as the Sovremenny-class destroyers, while also building new units of the Lanzhou- and Guangzhou-class destroyers in order to improve the sea service's air defense, surface strike and antisubmarine warfare capabilities. The Slava-class cruiser, however, adds the new dimension of long-range surface-strike capability with 16 P-500 Bazalt surface-tosurface missiles with a range of 297 nautical miles.

This capability would give the Chinese Navy a standoff capability against large air-capable combatants such as aircraft carriers, amphibious ships and other large surface combatants.

If China accepts the cruiser as is, it likely will transfer the vessel to China for completion and outfitting, since it will be able to finish the work at significantly less cost than if completed in the Ukraine. Current estimated value of the Ukraina is $500 million.