Russian battlecruiser Admiral Nakhimov

In 2006, a decision was made to modernize this ship instead of completing the construction of the submarine Belgorod.[7] Later in 2006, she was undergoing refit at Sevmash shipyard in Severodvinsk, but was reported finished ahead of schedule and was announced to again be in service with the Northern Fleet. However, later reports state that the cruiser has been docked at Sevmash since 1999 without any activity.[8] On 30 October 2008, Russian Navy representatives of the Northern Fleet announced that the first modification on Admiral Nakhimov had been started and that the ship would re-join the Russian fleet by 2012.[9][10] In November 2010 the director of Sevmash, Nikolai Kalistratov, repeated this statement confirming that the Russian government had appropriated money for Admiral Nakhimov to be repaired in 2011 (costing over 50 billion rubles.) However he also said that the funds were insufficient and more were needed to bring the ship back to active service.[1] After finishing repairs, Admiral Nakhimov is to join the Russian Pacific Fleet.[11]

In December 2011 the Sevmash shipyard stated that the refit of the ship would not be finished until after 2012. According to Sevmash General-Director Andrei Dyachkov the repairs were stopped because it was senseless to continue without having determined the final variant of modernization.[12]

Work on modernizing Admiral Nakhimov was resumed in January 2014 with the vessel being projected to rejoin the Russian Navy in 2018. Admiral Nakhimov is slated to carry the P-800 Oniks supersonic anti-ship missile and a navalized variant of the S-400 (missile) SAM system, among other weapons.[13] According to Sevmash as of 2 November 2015 work on removing the battlecruiser's old equipment had been completed, and work to install its replacement was about to be commenced.[14]

In 2018, Aleksey Rakhimov, the leader of the United Shipbuilding Corporation, stated that the end date of the reconstruction remained 2021 or 2022, but additional changes made by the Ministry of Defense had made would require an amendment to the contract or a new contract.[15] Trials are due to begin in 2020.[16] In September 2019, state news agency TASS quoted Russian deputy defense minister Alexsey Krivoruchko that "It will be the most powerful navy warship. We inspected the project, the ship is now about 50% ready. As was agreed with Sevmash shipyard, we expect to receive the ship in late 2022." as reported by Jane's.[17]

She's expected to be launched in July 2020 and start mooring trials about a year later [18]. It's expected to receive 174 VLS tubes: 80 for anti-surface and 94 for anti-air warfare [19]