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Soviet ASW Cruiser Moskva Kagero Top Drawings The work on the design of future long-range active anti-aircraft and anti-submarine ship - as it was initially determined - was conducted by the Leningrad CKB-17 in close cooperation with OKB-938 led by N.I. Kamov. The author of the ship's design, which was given the number 1123 and the code "Kondor”, was A.S. Sawiczew, and from 1967 - A.W. Marinich. The main task of the ship was to search and destroy American nuclear submarines carrying "Polaris” ballistic missiles in the Antarctic Ocean and Barents Sea. The Moskva-class helicopter carriers were the first operational Soviet Navy aircraft carriers, called helicopter carriers by the Soviet Navy. The Soviet designation was Project 1123 Kondor. These ships were laid down at Nikolayev South (Shipyard No.444). The lead vessel was launched in 1965 and named Moskva; she entered commission two years later. Moskva was followed by Leningrad, which was commissioned in late 1968; there were no further vessels built, reportedly due to the poor handling of the ships in rough seas. Both were conventionally powered. The Moskvas were not true "aircraft carriers" in that they did not carry any fixed-wing aircraft; the air wing was composed entirely of helicopters. They were designed primarily as anti-submarine warfare (ASW) vessels, and her weapons and sensor suite was optimized against the nuclear submarine threat. Their strategic role was to defend the Soviet ballistic missile submarine bases against incursions by Western attack submarines, forming the flagships of an ASW task force. This is the latest book from Kagero in their Top Drawing series, and like the previous books it has a brief history and the ships specifications at the beginning. The rest of the eighteen pages are filled with beautifully drawn diagrams of every part of the ship. Of most interest is the drawings of the internals of the hanger and missile magazines, which while not much use to most modellers could make for an interesting scratchbuild. It is obvious that a lot of time has been taken to get the drawings this good and accurate. As well as the larger diagrams, all drawn to 1:200 scale, are smaller drawings giving accurate details on most of the ships weapons systems and radars in 1:100 scale. In addition to the booklet, there are two A2 plans. Sheet 1 is in full colour with top, profile and fore/aft views on one side, in a 1:400 scale on one side and similar line drawings on the reverse side. Strangely enough Sheet 2 has the same line drawings as sheet 1, but on the reverse are a pair of side view line drawings, the upper of which is full hull and shows the stowage for the helicopters, while the lower profile is annotated, describing the ships weapons systems, radars and sonar. Conclusion I’ve always liked the rather odd shape of the Moskvas and being the Soviets first real attempt at aviation at sea, they were of interest to a young Royal Navy engineer, as they appeared to be so heavily armed. While this book/booklet is not the thickest around, it does contain lots of useful information that a modeller can use, especially updating eh rather old Airfix 1:600 kit, building the Combrig 1:700 kit, or keeping it in the library patiently waiting for that 1:350 kit that will surely be produced by a major manufacturer. Review sample courtesy of