Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleship

Uncommon card · No. 149402

The Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleships (Project 23, Russian: Советский Союз, 'Soviet Union') were a class of battleships begun by the Soviet Union in the late 1930s but never brought into service. Designed in response to the Bismarck-class battleships being built by Germany, they would have rivaled the Imperial Japanese Yamato class and America's planned Montana class in size, although with less firepower: nine 406 mm (16 in) guns compared to the nine 460 mm (18.1 in) guns of the Japanese ships and a dozen 16 in (406 mm) on the Montanas. The failure of the Soviet armor plate industry to build cemented armor plates thicker than 230 mm (9.1 in) would have negated any combat advantages from the Sovetsky Soyuz class's thicker armor. The Soviets contemplated building as many as fifteen Sovetsky Soyuz-class battleships, but eleven of them were never laid down, and construction of the first four was plagued with difficulties as the Soviet shipbuilding and related industries were not prepared to...

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